Latest / Yeah Buddy! Podcast / Inside the Entertainment World with Tyra Monique: Acting & Music Journeys

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Inside the Entertainment World with Tyra Monique: Acting & Music Journeys · Yeah Buddy! Podcast

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  Music.
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  Yes, yes, yes. What's going on, world? This is your man, Buddy Romick,
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  and we are back at it, y'all, with another episode of the Yeah, Buddy podcast.
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  And if this is your first time tuning in, thank you for checking it out.
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  And if you are a returning friend, thank you for returning back for another episode.
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  And you know how we do like every episode. I always try to bring one of my friends
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  in the entertainment business.
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  We sit down, chop it up, talk about our journeys in the entertainment business,
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  see what we got going on, what we got coming up.
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  And this episode is like no other y'all this episode
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  we got my good friend she represents the bay area
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  she's a very talented singer very talented actress you've seen her in national
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  commercials she's about to be one of the stars of the upcoming movie freaky
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  tales and she's got some dope music all the way ready to drop so right now y'all
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  want you to make it live make it live my good friend is tyra monique in the
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  building y'all hey what's up everyone.
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  So for sure yes yes thank you for uh thank you for
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  uh sliding through it took a minute it took a
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  minute but like yeah but but we in here we
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  making it happen and stuff all like that so i'm glad you came to sit down because
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  you got a lot a lot of good things coming i feel like you have a a very good
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  like 2025 coming up for you and yes we want to talk about that see what you
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  got going on and stuff like that but like i said you acting you singing how did you get started,
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  into acting into acting well i
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  first started singing when i was three and then you
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  know i used to put on like little shows for my parents so my mom used to be
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  in the living room a lot and then my dad used to be in his room a lot so i used
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  to put on like little shows for my mom at first and i'd be like okay i'm gonna
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  go to dad now and i would go to his room and like put on little performances and shows.
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  So by the time I became 10, my dad put me in acting classes.
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  So my first acting class was in San Bruno, California.
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  And I instantly fell in love. I'm like, okay, this is what I want to do.
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  So that's really how it started. And then I continued with acting classes.
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  And when I was in middle school and high school, I did theater.
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  I did musical theater and regular
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  theater and i even graduated with arts
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  honors from high school dope dope
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  yeah i majored in theater for college
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  for like almost two years and then i switched my major but yeah that's how i
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  started acting and then when i turned 18 i took it more serious and started
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  doing background work on big productions and stuff what's your what's your experience been so far,
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  be it all like these Hollywood sets.
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  We do background work on these movies and stuff and commercials.
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  I don't really like background work. I think I told you that.
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  I think I might have told you that. I'm sad. I don't really like background work.
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  Nowadays, I hardly do background work unless it's like for a commercial and it pays well.
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  That's how it is. Because commercials be paying well. But if I'm doing background
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  work for a movie, I'm all like, I got to do at least five days on this movie.
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  Because even then, that's what I might make, making one day on a commercial.
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  Right. right like i don't know they sag changed
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  like the pay rate i guess i don't i'm not too sure but when i
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  used to do background like on like tv and films
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  like the pay rate was like trash like i
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  don't know it was it was it was
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  especially like like non-union and stuff like that
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  that's kind of like how they like yeah they kind
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  of like they trick you like when you like like doing non-union work
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  and then you see them book you for this this job or whatever like oh we
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  may pay you like 300 bucks and then you look like it's like on a
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  10-hour scale you're like oh shit it's i
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  mean that's basically made a wage if i'm doing like 30 bucks an hour like in the bay area oh
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  it was about no 30 yeah well i was non-union for a while and like i would make
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  like a hundred something a day like i don't know for it gets said but like with
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  union though they they're able to like negotiate get the pay raise get their
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  pay bump and then we get all the the extra indemnities and stuff all like If we break for lunch,
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  there's a different thing on it. It adds up.
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  It's worth it to be union. If you're union, it is different than being non-union.
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  I'm more so speaking when I was non-union.
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  I've been through trash and working for 12-15 hour days and then getting yelled at on set.
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  Yeah and then just seeing how good like the union people get treated
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  that they begin like the snacks they're like y'all gotta go to the front and like
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  oh my god yeah we went through that yeah for sure that's why i was like no i
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  don't really like doing background work just i feel like i have ptsd yeah yeah
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  when i was like 18 19 oh yeah because that's the thing too like if you,
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  that's why I said if I got my niece or whatever, she wants to get into I think
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  starting at like 18 would be a good age just to be able to.
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  Maybe understand the business side of the
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  you know the like just how like like it's a
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  job people you know people just see your face and like oh
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  whoa whoa whoa this is this happens oh yeah no if
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  you're definitely starting acting you for sure need to
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  do background work for sure that's how you learn everything
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  i mean you're gonna learn an active class
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  hopefully about the business but like to actually see
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  what's going on like you need to be on set even as
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  a background act or extra like you need to learn everything
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  okay what the principals are actually doing because
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  if you want to be a principal one day and like a tv or film or
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  a commercial you need to see what they're doing so yeah
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  i mean like right now i don't want to do background work but starting out like
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  yeah you have to yeah we worked we did a couple of like background work like
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  a couple of commercials and stuff like that like we first met on it was the
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  chase commercial right i don't yeah we was lost.
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  We was lost. We was trying to find where it was even at. I think he was the
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  first person I met. I was like, you here for the commercial?
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  You here for the commercial? Why did I forget? Okay, yeah. I forgot.
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  No, no, no. I know we met on set, but I forgot we was lost.
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  That's how we met. That's how we met. We was looking for it.
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  I was like, she's got a bag full of clothes.
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  I got a bag full of clothes. She must be here for this. I'm like, where are we at?
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  Because it was the Chase Center. It was closed. I was like,
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  this no and i ain't never been there either so it's
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  like okay this is a big ass arena where we supposed to go
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  why ain't got no signs out here yeah but that's
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  the dope thing too about like i said being like union because
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  like like people like that that commercial what that commercial still get in
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  play and then to having that type of access to be is so close like i said we're
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  union so on that same set like we're in the same like like vicinity as like
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  these able to say he never know who was going to just be just pop up on set and stuff like that.
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  But when the AD just flies up to you, just to let y'all know,
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  but kevin hart steph curry about to be on set so y'all just don't lose your
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  cool and we're just like and you're just walking by like hey what's going on
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  y'all what's going on we were we talking and kevin hart just walked by he said
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  hi to us yeah yeah we're like hey
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  he was like oh he was so cute like i don't like like he's just so little i don't know.
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  I don't know but yeah he was but it was cool to see him like so cool
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  down to earth not no no funny thing but he was very cool like down to
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  earth do this shit like that for like to see like because like we've
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  seen it like on other sets and stuff like that like where unless
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  actually may not be so like coming to like
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  the extras of the back even though we're still here they're just kind of like you know
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  and to each his own not to knock them or anything
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  like that to each his own and stuff like that but it's just always a good feeling
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  like with like with they when you see like oh
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  okay these these are real people these these right
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  right yeah even that
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  little glimpse of him because he was surrounded by people you know even just
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  him walking past and saying hi to us it's like oh hey you know you don't really
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  have to do that you know he got a hell of people making a circle around him
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  and just acknowledging everyone you know even even if we were just extras like,
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  that's really cool and just keeping the vibe going and stuff all like that.
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  You know who else was hella cool to me i can't say for what it was because we
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  signed the india or whatever it has an air jet or whatever but jerry rice was
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  cool too i'm not gonna lie i
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  don't know who that is you didn't see when we when we ended the commercial.
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  The last commercial the last commercial we did i'm i'm
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  not gonna lie i'm not a sports person oh yeah it's all
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  he's set up he's a football he was the dude
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  on the the oh wait wait wait the dude that was running on the
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  so you know i don't know okay okay yeah no
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  actually i do know kind of i don't
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  know who that is but someone said oh yeah that's jerry okay
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  yeah yeah yeah so that guy the guy that they called jerry that was
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  jerry and said that like but he was just hella cool like well
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  he's probably the greatest wide receiver ever okay yeah
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  so that's just the truth and he's from and he's played for the
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  49ers he won all his super moors with like the 29ers stuff
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  like that and he played for the rainers too when he was here too so he a very
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  a legend in his own right but he was just chill just hella vibing
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  it's like yeah like because he was on the treadmill he was the dude on
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  the treadmill okay i know i'm about to get roasted it's
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  all good don't know who that is i did not watch sport
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  it's all good don't worry don't worry don't worry we'll just
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  blip all this out we'll go we try to maybe you can keep it we're gonna keep
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  this is gonna be a real for sure but we're not gonna they're just gonna start
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  sending clips of jerry rice and all this like stats that's funny and then so
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  but i said A lot of big things coming up for you this year.
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  I don't want to talk too much about it and stuff like that, but I know you are
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  one of the stars in the new movie, Freaky Tales.
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  And I just want to kind of just talk about what was the audition process like
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  for you to... How did you go about it? Do you have representation?
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  At the time, no, at the time, I did not. So, yeah.
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  So, they posted on casting networks that they were looking for someone to play
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  two shorts woman in Freaky Tales.
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  And it fit my description, so I submitted it for it. And then I got an audition
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  for it. So, I filmed a self-tape.
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  You know, it was a short audition because it was a small role.
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  So usually if it's a short audition i'll send
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  two takes in so i sent them two
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  takes sent it in and then i don't
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  know maybe like a week later they put me on avail oh
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  okay yeah so if you
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  guys don't know what that is like basically they're checking your availability
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  to see if you you know
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  can work that day so it's like yeah yeah you
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  know that doesn't necessarily mean that you got the
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  role by the way so i
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  was really nervous because you know two other people can
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  be on avail you never know yeah so i was really
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  hoping and praying i got it and then you know
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  they they sent me an email that i booked in all right you know
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  what's dope about that hey congrats for that thank you that is
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  like because a lot of times like people up here like will get
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  like um frustrated and just like you know just just just down just because like
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  um when like because that movie freaky tells stars a lot of a-list actors from
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  hollywood and whenever these movies sometimes come up here actors get frustrated
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  because they feel like they don't really get those type of opportunities.
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  So for you to be able to one get that opportunity and then
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  also not have no references like just you and stuff like that it's
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  a testament to like one it could be done and stuff like that it's just about putting
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  the work in and like i said like whatever it is that you
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  did to make it work shit made it work that's what's up yeah
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  i think for sure when it
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  comes to movies they definitely do try to
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  get la actors for like the bigger roles and
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  then like if they're filming out here they'll try to get usually it's like some
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  bay area actors to for like the smaller roles but yeah no mainly la actors you
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  know they they come from la and they're like the principal like the main roles
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  in a lot of films they make out here. Okay.
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  Which they need to change that. Yeah. Because if you're making a Bay Area film,
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  you should have mainly Bay Area actors. Yeah.
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  Stop bringing them LA crews up here, man. Them LA crews, them crew members be some assholes.
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  But yeah. So, Freaky Tales. Freaky Tales come out sometime in March.
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  March 4th, I think it is and stuff like that. So, go out, support.
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  I think it's in April, right? Oh, it is April. I don't know why. This is 2025.
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  Yeah, 2025. I don't know what month we in.
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  I just got back from L.A. last week. I thought I was only down there for a day,
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  but it felt like a week. I don't know what's going on.
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  Yeah. It's coming out next month, so check it out.
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  I have a very small role, so you may miss me. No small roles. No small roles. Hey.
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  No small roles. No, because I'm in the movie, too.
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  Oh, yeah, he is. Yeah, so I play one of two shorts crew members.
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  So we both got it on and popping and stuff. I just didn't get no credit. But, yeah.
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  I didn't get my credit. Well, you were featured, right? Yeah,
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  I was featured. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was featured, yeah. They set up.
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  I think it was the makeup ladies. They said, yeah, we saw you at a Sundance.
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  I was like, all right, cool, Michelle.
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  Not like I wasn't at Sundance. Oh, okay. When it premiered at Sundance,
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  they was like, oh, that's Buddy. Aww.
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  You want to go to the premiere out here? I think I don't know if it's true,
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  but I heard they might do an Oprah premiere.
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  Oh, they got us to do an Oprah premiere. So I don't know if it's true.
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  If they do, I'll be in there.
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  But if they do, I'm wearing my freaky toast hoodie. I'm going to wear the same
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  costume when they had me at the thing. Look, you're straight out of the 80s. I'll do a fuck.
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  Shit. So yeah, Freaky Tales is coming out, but then I've also been seeing on
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  your social media, your YouTube, and stuff like that, and you talked about it
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  earlier in the podcast with doing music and stuff like that.
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  I've seen the music videos and all that good stuff that you've been doing.
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  I don't want to mess it up, because I wanted to ask you the question because
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  I always see people do it, then I'm i'm like man how the hell do they do that
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  and stuff like that so it was the video oh the only one where he was in the
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  backyard or whatever he had the microphone how do you do that with the
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  microphone oh my gosh that took
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  that took so long yeah i
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  was and i'm like only five three i was throwing in
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  i was like i was in my mom's backyard because like
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  i live in oakland but i live in like apartments so i don't
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  have a backyard so i i basically took
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  away my mom's backyard and i got my brother to
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  help me because he's a little bit taller so i wasn't throwing
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  it and i was trying not to break it and i
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  basically had to tie it to a pole so it
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  was a lot okay because all you
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  see my head look like why because it just be nowhere like yeah cool that's funny
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  i was like you got your wrap on too i feel it thank you and then and then the
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  other songs oh yeah something to me gaslight i know what gaslighting is about
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  but like something to me and stuff like that i noticed that like you...
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  Like work with the same director yeah yeah for i've worked with him for three
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  music videos yeah because that's what yeah yeah yeah so ftu something to me and gaslighting yeah so,
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  what is your like process like with going from writing the music to now i'm getting the studio.
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  Laying the track and then now you have like
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  a whole team of people like is it like just a circle of people that you collaborate with
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  it's really small really small i write
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  my own music everything that i put out i wrote so
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  and it just comes it comes naturally i
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  could write a song in like 10 minutes like especially if i like a beat if i
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  really like a beat i'll just start spitting i start spitting and i'll just like
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  write it in my phone like in my notes some lyrics and then keep going line by
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  line line by line and then i'll do the whole song in one take like,
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  all right i like this i'm gonna go to the studio tomorrow yeah
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  yeah yeah i was just in the studio two days
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  ago and i wrote this song the day before okay so that's
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  basically what happened what's that song about you know give us a snippet or
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  a sneak tell like a little bit of what it's about or we gotta wait for the music
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  video we can wait for the music video i'm gonna make it i don't think i'm gonna
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  make a music video for this song it's something i had to get off my chest okay yeah Yeah. Okay.
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  Don't worry. I'm a comedian. I got jokes like that too. I was like,
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  you know what? This is just a therapy. This is not for the crowd. This is for me.
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  No, I'm going to, I'm probably going to release it, but like,
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  I don't know. A lot of the music I make, something happens to me to where it
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  inspires me to write a song. Does that make sense?
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  The same way with me as a comedian. I see something that inspires me to write a joke.
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  Yeah. I go through life and then you have an upside down.
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  I sit down and I process stuff. I'm like, what the hell have I been through?
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  You see the tragic stuff, the good stuff, and then you just try to find the funny in all of it.
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  You just write it down. When it comes time, let me get back on stage and let me go do what I do.
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  Yeah, I can be really mad and I'll just write a song and I'll feel a little
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  bit better. So it's like, wait.
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  Just sitting down and be like, oh, I'm going to write a song right now.
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  That doesn't usually work for me. Like, it has to be very spontaneous.
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  So, yeah. I feel that. No, I feel that. I'll be the same way with me writing
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  my jokes and stuff like that.
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  So is there anything else that you got coming up this year that we could look forward to?
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  Oh yeah i'm about to film a music video this
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  month not to the song i just recorded
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  but i i've been working on music like
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  all or towards the end of 2024 i was working on quite a bit of music so i'm
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  about to drop it i'm like i have some good songs coming up yes yeah yeah i got
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  commercial dropping around but it'd be a playoff time and stuff like that so
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  i mean fingers crossed you know so hey yeah do your thing,
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  you got April Freaky Tales you got March May you got the NBA playoff commercials
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  shit music dropping and shit and your shit's about to be fine oh and the NBA commercial,
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  hopefully because they like upgraded me all set yeah so hopefully that comes
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  through yeah yeah hopefully yeah shit and you was there both days hey yeah we yeah commercials pay,
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  they do they do so and i was like you know they basically upgraded me to a principal
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  so hopefully everything works out and i get that principal paid,
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  all you got to do is just call the union just call the union up and be all like
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  hey what's up with my paper.
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  That's what they for for sure so yeah
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  we gonna wrap up this here episode of the yeah buddy podcast thank
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  y'all for tuning in first time listeners all returning
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  guests thank y'all appreciate every single one of y'all I
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  want y'all to stay blessed out there you can follow the yeah
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  buddy podcast on all your streaming platforms youtube spotify
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  apple music all that and of course you can always go to my website www.yeahbuddyent.com
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  for all your podcasts stand-up comedy short films
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  my video logs all that good jazz and
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  then um miss tyra monique where can people find you at it's tyra monique like
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  actually it's it's tyra monique that's my instagram handle and then on youtube
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  it's just tyra monique just search up tyra monique you even search on google
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  too tyra monique you can find my music,
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  not right show that's it that's this business episode y'all so thank y'all for
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  tuning in man like i said it's your man buddy rami tyra monique we'll catch
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  y'all next time we out deuces.
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  Music.