Latest / The Breakfast Club / Keep It Positive, Sweetie: The Business of Betting on Yourself w/ Brian Jordan Jr.

Transcript

Keep It Positive, Sweetie: The Business of Betting on Yourself w/ Brian Jordan Jr. · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Calling all my Sweetish to the forefront. I'm your host,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Christophe and this is the Keep It Positive.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Sweetish Show.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Keep It Positive, Sweetie Show, the place
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: where we he'll grow and learn together. This week's guest
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: is a multi talented actor, singer, director, and storyteller Brian
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Jordan Junior. You know him from Tyler Perry Sisters. But
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: today we are diving into the man behind the music,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the message and the movement Kip's Family. Without further ado,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: please welcome my dear friend, my clothes made Brian Jordan Junior.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Oh close, maide, my friend. Hello, you're here.
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: Finally, finally, fine, look at us, look at us.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: All growing up. I've come a long way since twenty nineteen.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a long, long way, long way.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: People have no idea, but we're gonna get into it.
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: But you are from Louisiana, yes, Baton Rouge by way
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: of New Orleans.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: A lot of people know you from the His show Sisters.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: They know you as Mari's Web. But I want to
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: know Brian Jordan Junior. I know Brian, but I want
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the audience to know who you are. Take us back
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to young Brian. We want to just build this whole conversation.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: I really want to know where you come from, who
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: you are at your core, and how it shaved who
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: you are today.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Wow, young Brian, he was something else.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: I've always been a kid that had a big opinion
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: and a big dreams, whatever it was, I've wanted to
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: be so many different things. I wanted to be Michael
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Jackson for like the first six years of my life,
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: and then I wanted to be a football player, and
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: then and then I wanted to be one again and
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: then not, and then I realized that I wasn't going
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: to be professional, but I did play. But I grew
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: up in rural Louisiana, moved to Baton Rouge after the hurricane,
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: and I stayed in Baton Rouge for college. And I
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: grew up in a big family, yeah, four brothers and sisters,
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: single mother, and low socioeconomic But I knew that I
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: wanted to do more. I knew that I wanted to
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: be more, but I just couldn't quite figure out what
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: that more was until I went to college.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: And then I found the theater. I found the.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: Theater, and I was able to understand just the dexterity
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: of myself whenever I could play different characters. And I
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: met Debbie Allen my freshman year of college because she
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: was doing residencies in bat and Rouge and I auditioned
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: and she saw something in me because I couldn't dance
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: or I really didn't have any training, but she saw
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: something in me that she knew could be trained.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's important.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, And so shout out to Debbie Allen. I mean,
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: she's she's everybody's goat. I mean, she doesn't get the
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: credit that she deserves, but I'm gonna always give her credit.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: And she she gave me so many opportunities to train,
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: and she guided me in the right directions to go
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: to drama school in New York and the rest is history.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: But little Brian still kind of lives in me today.
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: He was funny, and he loved to eat, he loved
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: to cook, and he loved to throw it on, you know,
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: clothes and all the things.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, I.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Love that you talked about moving to Baton Rouge after
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: the hurricane, and you're talking about Hurricane Katrina. That was
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: something that the entire world saw happen, but.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: We didn't live it. Yes, can you take us back
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: to that time?
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: And was it like what we saw on the news
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: or was it Because I recently watched the documentary on
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Netflix and it was heartbreaking to like really hear the
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: testimonies of the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Can you talk about your experience?
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Absolutely?
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: You know, I can't watch the documentaries. I think I
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: watched one way back. It's been twenty years, yeah, and
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: I was in the ninth grade whenever it happened. I
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: often like to speak to the documentaries because I think
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: that it was such a subcultural disaster that the rest
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: of the world can digest it as a thing that
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: seemed so far away. I feel like it put New
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: Orleans and Louisiana because it was, you know, the southern
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: cities of Louisiana, La Fayete, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: were heavily impacted. And then there was another hurricane that
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: came right after it that nobody talks about, Gustave, And so.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: We went a long time.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: I mean beyond what you saw, like the Field Superdome
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: and the people swimming to safety and being on the roofs,
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: the larger issue was the lack of support that we
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: had thereafter, and electricity was gone for I think that
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: we went almost two months without lights, and obviously the
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: water was messed up if it was on, and there
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: was food and security, and people were looking for housing
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: and people had to start their lives over they lost
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: everything and starting in new schools. Just think about all
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: the kids who had just started new schools and so
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: it's something that was very difficult.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: But I think that.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: That type of disaster, and this may sound morbid, but
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: I always think about those type of disasters happening. I
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: could say that I've lived through about four hurricanes that
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: weren't as bad, but we've lost electricity for a very
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: extended period of time.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: There's been floods, you know, Louisiana. It's just that type
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: of place.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: But when you go into like a COVID, that is
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: a disaster where you see the loss of lives and
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: you're able to conflate that with something that you were
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: able to experience as a child. I think that that's
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: what helped me to kind of get through it, because
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: disaster wasn't a stranger to me, I know. And there's
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: always a silver lining on the cloud. And I think
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: that clouds are apropos to a hurricane because it was scary,
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: I mean as a kid, and just there wasn't enough warning.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: I always say that there wasn't enough warning. And you
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: look up one day and it's one thing, and then
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: the next and it's disaster, and you're like trying to
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: get out and trying to find somewhere to go, and
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: trying to find food and water and shelter and light,
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: and just a lot of families who had afford to
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: just get up and evacuate, you know. But thank god
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: we made it and I didn't lose any family members
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: and Katrina, thank god. But it was a difficult time
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: and it's difficult to watch. I mean there are even times,
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: and I know that you and I share this experience
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: when we were housed in quarantine.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you about that because that was
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: they're basically FEMA trailer.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, they were exactly like them.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: I remember you making a statement about that.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: You were like, I couldn't sleep the smell of it.
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: The smell of it just it smelled like a FEMA trailer.
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: It smelled like that type of thing, and just just
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: a reminder and those small reminders. I mean, even when
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: it rains, I don't like to drive into rains and
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: I think that that had something to do with that.
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: And thank God for therapy to work through those things.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, but.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we we just Hurricane Katrina was huge, but I
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: mean living in Baton Rouge Gustav was actually more impactful
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: in the aftermath. And there was a huge flood that
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: happened in two thousand and six, I think, and people
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: lost everything. It's just, you know, it's a constant struggle
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: with the sea level being so low. Yes, and not
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: to talk too much about it, but just the rebuilding.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: I always like to say this. The rebuilding has been
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: so challenging for the city, for the state still now,
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: I mean twenty years later, it's just not the same economically,
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: it's not the same. And so you know, shout out
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: to Louisiana.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, shout out Louisiana.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: We went for Essence Festival this year and there's so
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: much culture and so much history there.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: And the food is.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: The food, Yes, so good.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Your journey took you from LSU to NYU and Tish
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: and then to Debbie Allen's School of dance. How did
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: that journey shape the artist that you are today?
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: I think that when you live in Louisiana, and you
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: stay in Louisiana for undergrad or you stay there for college.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: When you move somewhere else, it's like living in another country.
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: Louisiana is such a cultural it's such as cultural difference
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: in the rest of the world.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: But also I think that I went to an all.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: Black high school, and when I left that all black
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: high school and went to college at a PWI and
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: then to drama school at another PWI in a very
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: white based industry theater, I learned so much about what
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: my place was in the world and what I had
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: to offer the world, and what people felt that I
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: had to offer the world, and all those type of things.
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: And so understanding that there was a world outside of
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: just the segregated Louisiana that I had grown up in
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: was interesting. But then, you know, there was even a
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: thing with like language. You know, I'm from Louisiana and
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: I had an accent and it was trained out of me,
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: and so people always talk about the way that I speak.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: Now They're just like, I can't tell that you're from Louisiana,
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, but you can do it one time,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: just one time for your bib. It's just that be
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: quiet Christau No, But you know, just those things. It
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: was assimilation that I learned and just being a black
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: man in a super white space. Coming from Louisiana, where
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: I went to a school that I would selling I
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: was at an all black school, you know, and just
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: to understand that the celebration was over when I went
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: into manhood was so jarring and it changed my mind
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: just about how I wanted to live my life and
• 9:11
  Speaker 4: the things that I wanted to do and the stories
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: that I wanted to tell and the people that I
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: wanted to tell the stories too. And I think that
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: I've been blessed to be able to have the avenues
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: to tell those stories. But that journey was interested, And
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: you know, I spoke a little bit about Debbie Allen,
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: but she's really the reason that I've clung to arts
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: education and that has really helped me to like navigate
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: my path because I didn't.
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: Coming from Louisiana.
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: It was either you an athlete that did well, you
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: work at the plant, and if you was a girl,
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: you was becoming a nurse. And that's just what it was.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: It's industrial and nobody's going to say how I want
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: to be a TV star, you know, like shut up,
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: you know, but that's what I said, and God saw fit,
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: you know, for it to happen.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: But it's because I was able.
• 10:02
  Speaker 4: To navigate through LSU and then take whatever money and
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: whatever thing I knew that Miss Allen could help me, know,
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: and go to New York and struggle with that.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, got New York in itself is a struggle. And
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: then going to.
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: School and absolutely absolutely and being kicked out of school
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: and having to go back, and I went through all
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: the things.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's talk about that. Yes, So I people think
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: it's just a smooth journey. They don't understand the ebbs
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and flows.
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: Oh, there's so much in this country when it comes
• 10:31
  Speaker 4: to education. First off, the price is astronomical, ridiculous. And
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: so when you decide that you're going to do something
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: and then you can get scholarship money or our fellowship,
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: which is what I had, you have to follow rules.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: And some of the rules were like you can't audition,
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: but of course I was like, I want to audition
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: for things.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, so you couldn't audition wise they didn't.
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: Want you to audition or work on other things when
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: you were in school. Wow, And so I was doing
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: a fellowship and I lost it and I lost the
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: money and I couldn't pay anymore, and so I had
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: to not do I mean, I couldn't pay for it,
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: so I had to stop going. So I didn't get
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: kicked out, they just kicked out the money. And so yeah,
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: I had to figure it out, and I spent I
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: spent some nights on the train in New York. Wow,
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: just trying to figure it out. I and some of
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: my family probably won't even know this, because I was
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: determined not to go home. I would spend n I
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: mean there's friends that I have in New York that
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I always have who we would get a dollar slice
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: of pizza and cut it and have I've slept on trains,
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: I've slept on sofas. I've done the things until I
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: just couldn't do it anymore. And thank God that I
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: had sense enough to move to Atlanta after all that,
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: you know, because it helped me to get a foundation
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: and get the credits and just do the things.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: But New York was hard. New York made a man
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: out of me.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: I always say that, listen, if you can survive in
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: New York, you can literally make it anywhere. That's like,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you carry so much confidence and you're not a monolith,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: and you boldly walk in every single space that God
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: has created for you. In finding that because you talked
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: about how you weren't celebrated once you left your all
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: black school and finding yourself and finding.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: That confidence, what has been some of the.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Biggest struggles that you faced navigating this industry.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: I think that the first thing about confidence is it
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: hasn't always been there, even if I pretended that it
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: was there. There was something that I was determined to achieve,
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: and I didn't really know how I was going to
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: achieve it, but I felt like if I at least
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: pretended to believe in myself, yeah, that somebody be Jesus,
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: that somebody would believe it, And so I would pretend
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: a lot. If I can be honest, I didn't really
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: believe that I could have all this until maybe twenty eighteen,
• 12:46
  Speaker 4: and then my life changed right after that. Whenever I decided,
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: whenever I believed for real, Yes, because I think that
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: we spend so much time trying to convince other people
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: that we don't even do the work to make ourselves be,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: and so belief to me now that I understand what
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: belief is to me, It is.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Understanding that whatever you.
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: Desire, you deserve it, no matter what the odds are,
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: no matter what has happened before you or what will
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: happen after you, what you deserve is what you desire.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: And so then that came the a plum. And so
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: the challenges that I have with the a plum is
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: people just like Brian is over confident. Maybe maybe Brian
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: is arrogant. Maybe Brian because I am someone who and
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: I've grown to be better about it. But I in
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: my youth, I found myself in spaces where I was
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: the youngest person a lot, and I had a lot
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: of opinions, and I had a lot to say, and
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: older people just say, hey, you know, you don't know everything.
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: And I thought I knew a lot, you know, And
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: I've learned that I didn't didn't know. But the challenges
• 13:50
  Speaker 4: were continuing to be confident in the face of our position,
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: in the face of failure, in the face of knows
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: which you know, you know the knows, and when you're black,
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: and trying to tell the stories that may not only
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: speak to black people, or trying to tell the black
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: stories to the people who don't understand blackness, or who
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: don't want to understand blackness. That's challenging, and it's still
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: a challenge. And we'll leave here with it being a
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: challenge because that's just what we've been born into and
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: it's a special challenge, just one that is unique and
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: rich with tradition and.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: Overcoming. And so what makes us any difference?
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: That's so true. You talked about twenty eighteen was the year.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: You actually started believing in yourself, and in twenty nineteen
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: you were cast all Right, the number one show hit
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: show for nine seasons Tyler Perry Sisters as Maurice Web.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I remember sitting in the back of the room the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: day that you did your audition and I.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Was like that that's Maurice.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Yes, no, I knew it. I was like, that's him,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and I just saw it. I want you to take
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: us back to that day when you got the audition
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: and you knew you were coming to Tyler Perry Studios
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: for the moment.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: You woke up, the moment I woke up.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: I actually was in New Orleans that day because I
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: was filming a film called Christmas Bells, which.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Was actually on BT Plus.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Now I think they were just filming and trying to
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: sell it then, and I was flown in because I
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: had done a self tape for Sisters to audition for
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Calvin and for it was Calvin and for Aaron. And
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: then Maurice came to me after those two auditions and
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: they were like, well, Maurice's recurring, and I was like,
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: I want to do the men who are going to
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: have a job like I don't. I don't want to
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: do like God bless Maurice and whatever he got going on.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to be on the TV, you know. And
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: so I actually got to Atlanta, and I was living
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: in Atlanta at the time, and so I went and
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: got in my car to drive to the audition and
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: the car wouldn't start. I don't know if you remember
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: the car that I was driving whenever we did season one.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I remember it's like a shoe storing or something.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: I would call it Coroling Martin. That was the name
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: of my car, and Coroling Martin was a Toyota Corolla
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: that was actually gifted to me by Brittany Inge.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Shout out to Brittany che.
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: I got to call her name. It was gifted to
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: me her and her mom said, how much money you got?
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Wow?
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: And I said nothing, And they gifted me a car.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: And that car, you know, it had lived. She had
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: lived her life. Coroling Martin Corolla Martin is non binary,
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: and so Corolling Martin had a shoestring tied to the hood.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: It wanted under the hole in the hood to the
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: rest of the car because the hood would just do
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: whatever he wanted to do. And that day it didn't
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: want to start, and so I had to get a
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: jump before I came.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: It was the battery.
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: Got a jump, and then I drove to Tyler Perry
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: Studios and I asked God. I said, hey, God, my guy,
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: I need you to get me there and back and
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: I'm good. And he got me there, and I thought
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: I went in there with four It was Maurice's, Gary, Aaron,
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: and Cal and that's what the four characters. A lot
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: of the guys were called back for a lot of characters.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: And I was sitting there learning it was about sixty
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: pages of stuff, sitting there going through it and seeing
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: all these you know, you go to a tele periodition
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: and everybody will swole up in buff and I'm just like, hi, guys,
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: you know, it's me from the theater. And so I
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: went into the audition and mister Pierre was in there.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: I didn't know that he would be there. And he's like,
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: we have Maurice for him. I'm like, okay, and so
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: he's like, can you read this? He gave me a
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: new side that I had never seen before. Can you
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: read this? And I'm like yeah, and I cold read it.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: And that was it.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: And I did not think that I got the job.
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: What do you know that when I don't tell this
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: story often enough? But I left out of that room.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: It was a big theater, y'all, and it was full
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: of people, but you can't really see if you could
• 17:52
  Speaker 4: just see heads in the shadows, and there's his light
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: on you. And I remember leaving there. And then right
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: after I left, mister p left.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: You were, like I said, I didn't drove him out
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: of here.
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: I thought that I'd ran him up out of there,
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: but I guess I learned that he had saw what
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: he needed to see. Yes, And what a blessing that was.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: Because I did book Maurice, which was the recurring character,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: but after my audition it changed and it wasn't recurring anymore.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: And I think that he went from seven episodes to seventeen.
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: Come on, and the rest is history. Here we are
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: two hundred episodes later, more than two hundred episodes.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: It's wild, It is wild, and I'm old.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: You are still young.
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Thanks everybody when you go out in the streets.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Maurice Maurice.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: But who is the man behind Maurice That people may
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: not know because some people cannot differentiate the character who
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: Brian George Jr.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Is Maurice?
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Well, ah, that's good. Yeah, Maurice is such an escape
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: from who I am. Yeah, and I think that we
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: have so many things in common, you know obviously, like
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: humor is something that I and then you know that
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: you know how I love to be funny. I love
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: to laugh. But Brian is a person who has such
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: a big heart for people. And I just love to
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: take care of people. It's my love language. I love
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: to cook for people and do things. I just love it.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: I love big events, I love sports, I love talking crap,
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: I love spades. I love, you know, to work out,
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: and like the last year, I really fallen in love
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: with that, which we know Maurice don't love that. And
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Brian is someone who is who stands on the shoulders
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: of a lot of black women who have shown me
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: the importance of what a man can be to a
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: woman in a friendship and as a brother. And I
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: think that Maurice is kind of that too, But I
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: know that, And I'll never stop talking about just how
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: black women have helped me to build my career. And
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: I mean obviously gave me life, but in the absence
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: of like a father figure, and it just other people
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: around me who could be father figures even in my career,
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: like black women have been, you know, a guide in life.
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: When I talk about Dabie Allen, I'll continue to say
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: her name because she just saw it me to slap
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: me upside my head, you know, And yeah, it cursed
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: me out enough so that I knew what, you know,
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: I understood the values. And so now I'm probably harder
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: than she is because it's that old school training that
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: got me to the point where I am. But Brian
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: is is a lover of God and a love of people, yeah,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: And a love of the art, yes he is. And
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: a love of fine things and beautiful clothes, fine people,
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: and fine food, you know, fine film, yeah, fine, fine,
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: very fine.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I love that after being thrust because you've been in
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: the industry for a long time, but now you are
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: well known. What are some of the ways that you
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: had to adjust Because I know people.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: We think we're ready, but then it's like, whoa, this
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: is a lot, yo.
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: No one can ever prepare you for that to be
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: in the public guy, And thrust is the correct word,
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: because you know, I'm so glad we're having this conversation together.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: COVID happened at the.
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: Beginning of our shows, and we were tucked away during
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: seasons one and two, and then we were thrown out
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: into this open world without a mask and that thing
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: went crazy and I dealt with security issues and and
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: you know, I mean people have come to my home,
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: come into my home. I've had to move and find,
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: you know, safer places. I have to move throughout the
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: world in a different way than I would normally move,
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: you know, And that is one part of it. But also,
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: you know, body image has been the biggest.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: I wanted to talk to you about that.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: The biggest. It's been the biggest challenge. It is the
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: biggest challenge.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: I have to be honest, because I made a joke
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: earlier about walking into a room of men that look
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: a certain type of way in film. They're film and
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: TV especially, you know, with sisters in the land of
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: if I can be honest Black television, there is a
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: conventional standard of beauty that I did not meet, and
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: I didn't realize it.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: It just happened.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: And then it happened even more because I was on
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: TV every week, and then it was in person, and
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: it was people who thought that they would being complementary
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: about how I looked on TV and how different I
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: looked in person or how you know.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: And then I started to struggle with.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: Feeling like a leading man but not looking like one.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: And it's still a struggle.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: And I know that I'm speaking for a lot of
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: people who may not be able to speak, who may
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: not be able to speak because weight fluctuates. And I've
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: it's never been a thing for me being a big guy,
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: and I just was a big guy. I just always
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: have been a big guy in finding my way to
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: success and being compared to people every day, seeing public
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: opinion every day about comparison, and looking at yourself in
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: every gallery, shoot every photo of shoot every picture, looking
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: at yourself on camera and what angle's working. I just
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: I had to develop a system for myself because I
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: knew that I wanted to change. But I think that initially,
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: probably the first three years of Sisters, my change was
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: based in what other people looked like. Wow, it was
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: I was comparing myself to people all the time, and
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: people who I loved and admired and I and it
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: wasn't like I was.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: It was a negative thing.
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: It was just like I'm standing around the best friends
• 23:45
  Speaker 4: that I have, my brother's Cheeto and devales and they
• 23:48
  Speaker 4: look great and they have like abs and I'm literally
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: over here just like fighting for my life.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: And it was tough.
• 23:55
  Speaker 4: It is tough, and so even now as I navigate,
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: and obviously I've lost some weight since then. Thank you
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: so much. It's such a journey, though, Chris. It's it's
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: it is such a journey, and I think I'm finally
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: finding my footing, which it requires a lot of discipline.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that discipline, because you're running now, working out,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: You've always in the gym?
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Was it the food that.
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: Was absolutely a a.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: I love to eat and still today I do, but
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: I think that I had to figure out what was
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: more important. And I still love to eat and I
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: still do eat, but it's in a very different ways.
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: It's in a very different way. And I found ways
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: to enjoy the things that I need and not the
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: things that I desire. Yes, and I also found cardio
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: that I like, and which is running and like looking
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: at people. And you know, I live in a different
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: city now and running it's like the culture of running
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: is different.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: It is in New York.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: And so I run, and I've gotten up to about
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: six and a half miles a day. What yeah, I'm
• 25:01
  Speaker 4: so I just run blocks and you know, I run
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: and walk. I run and walk. I ain't gonna lie
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: back and forth, but I am, and I'm getting those
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: calories down and it helps, and it feels good. And
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: if I lift heavy, and people not to do a
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: fitness thing, because you know, anytime somebody lose weight and
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: they become billy blanks. But I I lift heavy and
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: it helps because you lose that weight in their skins
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: start to do something different.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: And you know how I feel about skin.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: So I lift heavy, and I and I run, and
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: I and I do I cycle too. I switch it
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: up because I get bored with things. I'm a creative.
• 25:43
  Speaker 4: I get bored with things and I just really fast.
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: I intermitting fast, and I go into the last minute
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: where I'm starving, and then it makes the meal so
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: good no matter what it is.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, like, oh main, God, this solidest show.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: God tastes like a porterhouse.
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: God, it tastes like a fried work chop. I've had
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: a fried pork chop sandwich.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: I haven't had a pork chop since college.
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: I know we think we better than but we can
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: get up onder a pork chop sandwich.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: Listen, a white bread, Hey.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Listen, little white bread. I'm going now tear up a
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: fried pork chop.
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: Lovely though those are those things are lovely, so silly,
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: I can't eat that anymore.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm proud of you.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you because as your friend, like
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I would see you working out and even it's the
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: unspoken dialogue that we have where like, I know this
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: is something that you struggle with internalist, and I can
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: see you trying to work towards it. So I'm just
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: so proud of you that you found a way to
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: work out and do it in a way that you love.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: Even when you walked in today like you just.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Your glow is different, and I can tell us internal
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: not just external.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, you gotta figure out.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: I was working out from the wrong place and trying
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: to accomplish something based on somebody else. To find your
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: own body and find the best body that you have,
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: because you're just We're born with everything that we have
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: that we need, we really are, and so I just
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: had to find because it was in here, it was
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: up under here. It's still a little more up in here,
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: but you know, it's still I want to just drive
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: the point home because I don't want to say it
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: was a struggle.
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: It is a struggle.
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: And I'm finding something new every day and working through
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: something new. And when I say and find something new,
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: sometimes it's finding something new that I feel I need
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: to change, that I feel it need to work on.
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: And now that I've lost the weight, now I need
• 27:34
  Speaker 4: to do this. Now this looks different, Now this fits
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: different now, you know. And it's a challenge. But I
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: think that challenges are not something that will stop.
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: No.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: I think that challenges make us stronger so that when
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: new challenges come, we're able to attack them with more armor.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: Absolutely well, I think it comes with evolutions every time
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: we evolve. It's something else, and it's so refreshing to
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: hear a man speak on there because a lot of
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: times you hear women talk about dysmorphia and how we nitpick.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: I just talked about it Saturday at the event, about
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: how we just we're our own worst critics and we're
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: picking at every little thing that people look at us
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and like, oh my god, you look amazing, and then
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: some people are like, is she pregnant?
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: You look fat?
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: You know, but all though, but we look at me
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: and we're like, if I could just fix this or
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: tweak that.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: So just to speak to men who may feel the
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: same way, to let them know they're not alone in this.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: And also we can be kinder to each other, you know,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: because we're all dealing with something.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, even even hearing somebody's and kinder to each other,
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: like not being mean, but also just speaking to everything.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, every time I see you, I'm just like
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: Jesus now, I really mean that in a godly way.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: I'm like, wow, Crystal's here. Hey, ain't no use of lying.
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: We hear you know what I'm saying. But that kindness
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: to each other, it's just humanity.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: We need it.
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: We need it right now in the world.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, for sure, we are nine seasons in.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: This is unheard of for many shows.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, you know six five to six seasons is normally thengege.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Accomplishment, Yeah, huge and huge.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: What are some lessons that you learned on Sisters, from
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: either your castmates or from Tyler during this time, because
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: You know, yeah, I'll start with without I'll say, but
• 29:24
  Speaker 4: I'll start with Tyler because I don't think that Tyler
• 29:28
  Speaker 4: Perry gets the credit that he deserves for more than
• 29:32
  Speaker 4: what he gets. I think that people talk about the
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: amount of capital that he's amassed and all those things,
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: but nobody is talking about the master class and techniques
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: that it requires for someone to amass that on their own.
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: Come on, and I've watched him take those things every
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: single thing because he doesn't have to do anything.
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: He has done the things, yes, for thirty years.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And I watch him with my own eyes stand
• 30:01
  Speaker 4: in front of me and take on every single piece
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: of production and post production and pre production into account.
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: And he knows how to do everything himself. And I
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: will say that's probably the biggest lesson that I've gotten
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: in all of this, because as I move into my
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: own projects, like with Riley that I've been developing for
• 30:20
  Speaker 4: eight years. I knew that I could not go into
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: Riley the way that I wanted to until I can
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: afford to own it outright.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, And I've watched TP.
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: Literally be able to not only own it, but own
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: it like this owns it and you can't tell him
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: anything about it. You can't tell him anything about the audience,
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: about the content, about the deals, about the financing, about
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: the time, about anything, because he understands it.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: He created it. He has created a method.
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: So when I am what people will call a well
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: studied actor until you hear about the stand of Slavsky
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: methods and all of the things the Shakespeare and I
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: am at Pentameter and the August Wilsonian method.
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: But Tyler Perry has a method.
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: There is a method that he has developed when it
• 31:15
  Speaker 4: comes to the development and the execution of television, film
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: and theater.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:20
  Speaker 4: I mean, hey, I don't know if there is a
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: more famous playwright in the history of the world. Like
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: people know him for those plays, and people forget that
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: too because he hasn't done plays in a long time.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: But that's how I found Tyler Perry. That's how I mean.
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: It's the first player I ever saw, you know, on
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: a VHS at my grandmother's house. Yep, And people forget that,
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: and I think that that is such an important landmark
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: in time, and to be aligned with that in such
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: a historical way, like Sisters, it's just so gratifying because
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: I feel like I'm a little part of that history.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: And from my castmates, you know, my castmates has shown
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: me so much about enterprise and finance and building wealth
• 32:06
  Speaker 4: from whatever you have, like you and like Devo, you know,
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: I've learned so much from you guys, and you guys
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: have been so giving and open with the advice and
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: with the help. Because this thing could go away. It
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: changes fast too. I mean you can go from being
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: on TV and then there's COVID, and then there's no auditions,
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: and then there's nothing, and then there's a strike right
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: after COVID, you know. And so I feel like I
• 32:32
  Speaker 4: was able to live through those things because I found
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: family and my castmates, and I found advice and knowledge
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: and wisdom and people that I could listen to and
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: trust that they had my best interests at heart. And
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: so those are the two biggest things like that business
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: acumen and the way that he was able Tyler was
• 32:49
  Speaker 4: able to develop this conglomerate, and then the family that
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: I found in you in Devou and Cheeto and kJ
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: and Ebony and everybody.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: That helped me to move through the world with an
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: understanding that I wouldn't have otherwise.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: That is so beautiful.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: There's a level of we talked about discipline, but also
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: a level of humility that comes on taking different characters.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: And for me taking on Fatima, I used to judge
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: her all the time. Have there ever been moments where
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: you're reading the script and you catch yourself judging Maurice.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: All the time?
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: Every time Maurice is crazy, he is, he could say
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: some awful things to people. He makes crazy decisions, and
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: he's put himself in a lot of different places that
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: don't make sense. Cyclical things, And that's such the opposite
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: of me, Like, if I see a cycle, I'm like,
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: I'm not doing that again, you know. But there is
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: a thing about playing characters that I enjoy, and it
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: is literally you can do whatever you want, and if
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: you don't judge the character, you can play this thing
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: so outright that it helps somebody who may not make
• 34:04
  Speaker 4: the same kind of decisions that you made, right, And
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: Maurice is someone who before I played him.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: I did not know him, So it's easy to judge
• 34:13
  Speaker 3: somebody else, you know.
• 34:14
  Speaker 4: But then I'm like, you find after, I mean, after
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: so much text and so many episodes, you find that
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: there's a method to everybody's madness and there is a
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: reason why we all make decisions.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: And so I try my best not to judge it,
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: but I'll be lying it. I mean, I'm reading scripts.
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: I'm like mo, mo, please, just doing anything, saying anything,
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: And I understand a lot of it is comedic, but
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: I also understand that there's so many people, and I've
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: been able to meet so many people who identify with
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: Maurice and they are like him, and I'm like, wow,
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: thank god you did an audition.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: Right, right, because you took my job.
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: But you know, I just didn't know anybody like that
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: like that before, and I was able to build him
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: into an amagulamation of so many people that I knew.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: But yeah, you it's difficult to.
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: Not judge characters in such a crazy world that you
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: know sisters is and and but the beauty of it
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: is that it helps you to live the life of
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: two people. When we've done this for so long, you're
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: able to learn from even their mistakes in your own life.
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: And it's kind of a cheat code.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: No, for sure. For sure.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Now I want to talk to you about Riley. He said,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: you've been working on this for eight years. When you
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: said that, it reminded me of Tyler's jazz Man Blues.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: That was the first gripty road and he had sat
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: on it for years.
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: Really, I didn't know that.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, that was the very first.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it was his very first movie that he wrote,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: and it was he brought it back up around twenty fifteen,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: put it back down.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: Wow, that's why.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: So was that similar for you when it came to Riley.
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because, I mean Riley was not something. Riley is
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: not something that I made any money from. And so
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: the biggest thing for me about Riley was I had
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: to put it down when I had to work. You know,
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: you have to focus on other things so that you
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: can eat and live. And so I started Riley in
• 36:09
  Speaker 4: twenty seventeen. Whenever I looked around, and I was really
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: really in the Broadway world, in the theater world, and
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: there were no roles where strong black men led unless
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: they were playing strong black men who had lived before.
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: And I was interested in telling a story about a
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: black community that was proud and a black man at
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: the center who wasn't trophy, who wasn't a drug dealer
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: or a slave or a doop singer. I was very
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: interested in telling the story of just a young black
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: man who was going to school like I did, like
• 36:41
  Speaker 4: many of us do. And it started off as a
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: play because I wasn't writing music, which is so crazy
• 36:48
  Speaker 4: that I've written all these songs now, but I wasn't
• 36:50
  Speaker 4: writing music, and I was did a reading of it,
• 36:52
  Speaker 4: and it was like missing something. I was like an
• 36:54
  Speaker 4: HBCU experience is one that is music, Like you have
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: to have music, you have to I started looking for
• 37:01
  Speaker 4: writers and I could not find one that I like.
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: And you know, Crystal, my standards are very high, and
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: I just I mean, I think I went through four
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: and five musicians.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: I just could not find one that could stick.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: What does it sound like?
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: My close made just like yes.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: And so then I said, you know what, I'm gonna
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: do it myself. Come on, I'm gonna write it myself.
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: And then I wrote a song and I would call
• 37:25
  Speaker 4: my friend I'd sing it and they was like, that's good,
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: and I say, it's all right, I'll write another one.
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: And then I think that today, I think that for
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: Riley the Musical, I've written fifty four songs what and
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: there we've kept thirty two in the musical and they're
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: nineteen on the album. So yeah, and so I said
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: on it, I sat on it, and I will walk
• 37:45
  Speaker 4: away and go back. And the name has changed six times,
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: and the stories have changed because it's been eight years,
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: and so you have to do if it's a trending story,
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: you can't talk about the trending story from twenty eighteen.
• 37:56
  Speaker 4: You have to keep moving the data. And so it's
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: changed so many times. But I'm so happy that I'm
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: finally getting the chance to bring it to the world,
• 38:03
  Speaker 4: and it's been so successful. Surprisingly, I'm so surprised that
• 38:06
  Speaker 4: people like it like this.
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: Why are you surprised?
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 38:09
  Speaker 4: You just sit in your room and your Chris crossed
• 38:11
  Speaker 4: your legs and you write songs and.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: Then you know you're just sitting there. Yeah, and you
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: just never know.
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: I think that we all have dreams, and who's to
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: say that people will like them. You know, I think
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: I'm a hard critic, and so I just assume everybody
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: else will be one. Two And I'm just blessed and
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: honored to be able to share with the world.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love that.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Now, you did not attend an HBCU. So where did
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: you get the insiration.
• 38:35
  Speaker 4: From the people around me? I will say number one,
• 38:39
  Speaker 4: but number two. When I was in high school, I
• 38:40
  Speaker 4: talked about the black private school that I went to.
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: It was the Southern University Laboratory High School, so it
• 38:47
  Speaker 4: was on the campus of Southern University and in college,
• 38:50
  Speaker 4: and the professors would teach us, we would be involved
• 38:53
  Speaker 4: in all the activities, and it was such an escape
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: from what I had experienced in middle school because when
• 38:58
  Speaker 4: I got there, it was the African American people who
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: cared so much about the way that this school was presented.
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: I said, the pride, and you know, in an HBCU
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: everything is pulled and high. My name is Brian Jordan Junior,
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: and I am a senior mas com. You know, it's
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: all of that, and I'd never seen it before. And
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: there was a plum and a confidence about blackness, about
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: academia and about the customs, traditions and ideas of black colleges.
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: That was so impressive to me. And I know that
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: the world doesn't know that. The world doesn't, especially the
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: modern world, They don't see it. And what I continue
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: to see is the influences of HBCU life in other things,
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: in other things that weren't black. But nobody knows that
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: these Land Grant and Bell Tower institutions were founded because
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: sharecropping was deemed unconstitutional, and they gave money to people
• 39:54
  Speaker 4: to start colleges for agricultural and mechanical studies so that
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: they can continue to be found. And what has come
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: from that is Kamala Harris and Stacy Abrams and Debbie
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: Allen and Tcharaji Henson and wonderful people who have gone
• 40:09
  Speaker 4: to these huge collegesh Oprah.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: Octavia Spencer, Chadwick Boseman. I mean, we can go on
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: and on, and they have.
• 40:21
  Speaker 4: Really shown the vivid illustration of blackness, how you can
• 40:25
  Speaker 4: give us something really really small and we'll turn it
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: into a whole thing. And so I knew that if
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: I gotten to this point and no one had told
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: the story, it didn't matter if I went to HBCU,
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: it mattered that I went to upperbound programs at HBCUs,
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: that I went to football camps at HBCUs, that I
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: went to national youth sports programs at HBCUs that helped
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: to rear me and foster my gifts.
• 40:47
  Speaker 3: As a child, and even the communities.
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: I mean, if you live in Atlanta, you know what
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: time it is when it's spelled house home coming if
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: you're from Tennessee, and even if you didn't, if you
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: go to Middle Tennessee University, you know what Tennessee State
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: is about.
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: And you celebrate the homecoming zone much, you know.
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: And it's just about what the black colleges mean to
• 41:09
  Speaker 4: Black academia, but also the black communities.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: It raises us all and it pulls us all up.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: I love that you also directed and choreographed The Wiz
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: at Theater. Yes, what did doing a classic like The Wiz?
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: How did that help get you ready.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: To do Riley?
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: Absolutely? It was way more instrumentally than I even thought.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: I'm a strategic thinker, and so I knew that directing
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: The Wiz would help to establish my name in a
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: theatrical place that would help me to bring because I've
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: been playing in this Riley to roll out the outfits
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: that all the school stuff that y'all have seen. I've
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: been planning this for like four years. I knew I
• 41:47
  Speaker 4: just had to have a certain amount of money to
• 41:49
  Speaker 4: do it. And when I directed The Wiz, first off,
• 41:52
  Speaker 4: shout out to Kenny Leon, who is the founder and
• 41:55
  Speaker 4: creative True Color Theater and has been a mentor of
• 41:58
  Speaker 4: mine for a long time. Kenny, you know, and Jemil
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: jud who's the artistic director there, gave me the opportunity
• 42:04
  Speaker 4: to direct The Whiz. And what I found in The
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: Wiz is so many people hadn't seen theater before, or
• 42:13
  Speaker 4: they hadn't seen theater since they saw a Medea play,
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: and they came to the show because they loved Maurice.
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: And we sold that show out. I think that I
• 42:21
  Speaker 4: went and did press for the show, and within seventy
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: two hours we sold out twenty nine performances of that show.
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: Wow, quickly oversold. We sold the whole thing out.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: That's amazing.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: And it was a lot of people who were saying,
• 42:32
  Speaker 4: this is my first play, what and I feel like
• 42:34
  Speaker 4: and I call it the Lemon Pepper Wiz because I
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: was strategic about making oz like you know, Emerald City
• 42:42
  Speaker 4: feel like Atlanta. And so the tin Man was at
• 42:45
  Speaker 4: Cascade and The Lion was at the Mary Marquis, and
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: it was just a lot of things that I included.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: I mean, qu Parker was the tin Man, you know.
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: I was strategic about what Atlanta needed to see in
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: the Whiz, right, because we have to make theater these
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: days whenever, you know, digital is so in front of
• 43:01
  Speaker 4: our face, and everything is so quick to get and
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: you want people to come and see live things that
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: you don't have video of, you have to make it
• 43:08
  Speaker 4: something that people will want to see. And so that
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: taught me that there is a huge market for black theater. Yes,
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: if you bring it to the people who it's for,
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: which is another Tiler period lesson. I ain't gonna keep
• 43:21
  Speaker 4: doing the Tiler Perio lessons, but to serve the people
• 43:23
  Speaker 4: the things that they if you're creating it for the people,
• 43:26
  Speaker 4: serve it to the people, you know. And so I
• 43:28
  Speaker 4: learned then that there was there's so many stories that
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: need to be told. And then now we're living in
• 43:32
  Speaker 4: a time where last year was the biggest season on
• 43:34
  Speaker 4: Broadway and the history of Broadway, and the largest grossing
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: show was led by a black man. Othello, you know,
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: and so shout out to Denzel Washington, shout out to
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: the people who are showing that black stories and black
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: eyep is important, is marketable, is potent.
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: And so the Wiz taught me that.
• 43:54
  Speaker 4: It taught me that there is room for black theater
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: even in mainstream because they're trying to make you believe
• 44:02
  Speaker 4: that it doesn't belong.
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: But the Wizard was great. It was a great experience.
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: That's amazing.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: How did you balance the creative and the business side
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: of bringing rally to fruition, because I know that's a lot,
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: especially doing it independently.
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: Well, the balance is you may want a lot more
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: than what you can afford, and so you have to
• 44:21
  Speaker 4: you have to make those decisions. And the business of
• 44:26
  Speaker 4: being on sisters and learning from people around me, learning
• 44:30
  Speaker 4: from people who had taken their finances and independently place
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: their money and their own things, you know, it helped
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: me to understand the balance of things and what could
• 44:41
  Speaker 4: be more profitable and what is long game and what
• 44:44
  Speaker 4: you need to pull back on.
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: Because me, I'm just like, I do it big.
• 44:47
  Speaker 4: I want all the things, I want all the artists
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: I want to you know, everything I want sixty five
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: dancers and a forty seven piece orchestra, and I'm like, hey, brother,
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: pull it on back, you know.
• 44:58
  Speaker 3: And so I learned a lot of lessons. I did
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: a lot of.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: Scaling back on what I dreamed and putting people in
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: the right places so that they can reach the right people,
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: and understanding how to merge social and digital with the
• 45:14
  Speaker 4: live theater aspect, and just finding the balance because you know,
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: if it was up to me, it would. I mean,
• 45:19
  Speaker 4: the social thing I struggle, Crystal is the goat. I
• 45:23
  Speaker 4: struggle with the social and the digital stuff. But this
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: really pulled me out. And I was very intentional about
• 45:28
  Speaker 4: doing that because I know that's the way to get
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: to the people. And I wasn't gonna waste my money,
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: come on, okay, okay on the things.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: And so you had to.
• 45:39
  Speaker 4: I had to figure out what would be long lasting,
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: what would reach the people, and what would get me
• 45:44
  Speaker 4: on Keep it positive, sweetie.
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: So it worked.
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: You are so silly. I love that.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: It's so funny because I'm going on a live show
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: tour for keeping Positive, sweetie, And like you, I like
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: all the things I want.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: Led screen pyrol. Everything I want to come from the roof.
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: That's exactly right. Why not?
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: And they're like, Okay, Crystal, if we do this, you're
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: not gonna make.
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: Any money, that's right.
• 46:14
  Speaker 2: Like, so, do you want to leave home with money
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: or do you I mean leave the show going home
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: with some money? Or do you want to put it
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: all in the show?
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: So give me the money, A little bit money, Yeah,
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: you know, list a little We still have a gowns.
• 46:30
  Speaker 3: I can't wait. The gowns, nice gowns, kes kex archive, listen, museum, Yeah,
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: all the things, the mass that's it.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: Please no, but I totally I get it. I get it.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: You've called Raleigh a story that's both personal and cultural.
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: In your own words, what does Riley represent to you?
• 46:53
  Speaker 4: I think that if I had you say it in
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: a short amount of words, I think that Riley represents
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: what it looks like when black people decide not to
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: struggle anymore, my lord, what it looks like when black
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: people decide to not wait on the celebration of others,
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: and what it looks like when black people decide that
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: there is wealth and real estate in our own selves.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: And that's what Riley is.
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: I mean, Riley is a story about a black football
• 47:26
  Speaker 4: player who went to a white high school, but he
• 47:28
  Speaker 4: decides to honor his mother's life by going to the
• 47:32
  Speaker 4: Black college, and he is kind of a fish out
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: of water, but he gets there and he realizes that
• 47:38
  Speaker 4: that's where he belongs in There is something that was
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: just ancestral about it, and it's a celebration of the
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: Black college. It's not filled with scandal and feel with
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: the things that are baity to people. It is filled
• 47:52
  Speaker 4: with why people pile up on Southwest flights to come
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: to Atlanta on the weekend to go to a spell
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: House home coming and just be out up in traffic.
• 48:01
  Speaker 3: It is the reason.
• 48:02
  Speaker 4: It gives you a level of importance that is not
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: something that you can buy. We're born into that importance, Yes,
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: We're born into that ancestral like landmark soil, that is
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: just who we are. And I feel like there has
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: not been an adequate adaptation or storytelling of that since.
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: And this is no shade to anything that has come after.
• 48:25
  Speaker 4: But I feel like when we look at things that
• 48:28
  Speaker 4: have inspired me with Riley, it's a different world. It's
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: school days, those things that really had that close connection
• 48:34
  Speaker 4: to the celebration of these colleges and institutions, and so yeah,
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: that's what Riley is. It's a celebration of blackness and
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: independence of blackness and what it looks like to learn
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: and to be intelligent and to teach.
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, yeah, I love that.
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: If there's any advice that you could give to young
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: artists who are trying to just navigate this industry, who
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: are trying to, like you, create their own content, what
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: is the advice that you would give them.
• 49:07
  Speaker 4: We are all dreamers, and I think that I had
• 49:11
  Speaker 4: a crazy dream last night. And I'm gonna get to
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: the point with this, but I had a crazy dream
• 49:15
  Speaker 4: last night and it just didn't make any sense.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: Most dreams don't make any sense.
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you're like, what was that about?
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: They don't.
• 49:21
  Speaker 4: And even when you wake up and you tell your mom,
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: who is a nurse and who's been struggling to take
• 49:27
  Speaker 4: care of four kids her whole life, that I'm going
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: to be a movie at a TV star, that dream
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: to your mama sounds crazy. It's because it is. It's
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: such a small amount of people who can do it.
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: But there are people who can do it. And so
• 49:43
  Speaker 4: when you dream crazy, you have these big dreams, you
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: have to do the same amount of work that the
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: dream is. So if the dream is insane, doing insane
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: amount of work to dream dreams don't make sense. So
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: you have to do a senseless amount of work. That
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: means waking up and going to the gym if you
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: don't want to. That means eating so way if you
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: don't want to. That means putting together looks if you
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: can't afford stylist or getting the styllars if you need it.
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: It means going to every class that you can go to,
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: singing every song that you can sing, training and dance,
• 50:10
  Speaker 4: training in theater, reading, going to people and helping them,
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: getting help with tape.
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: It means doing the impossible. These dreams are impossible.
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: There's a song that says dream the impossible dream, but
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: nobody talks about the impossible work. Boy, nobody talks about
• 50:27
  Speaker 4: the impossible work. And so I would encourage people. If
• 50:29
  Speaker 4: you want to accomplish the dream, accomplish the work.
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: It has to match.
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: Yes, And so you see people who you love on TV,
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: like Fatima, and then you also see Fatima on brand campaigns,
• 50:41
  Speaker 4: on this podcast, on film on doing everything. She's our
• 50:45
  Speaker 4: fashion goal, like she is doing all the things because
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: her dream is impossible and she's doing the impossible amount
• 50:53
  Speaker 4: of work.
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: So that's what I've encourage.
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: But just work, do the work, and if you're tired,
• 50:56
  Speaker 4: go to sleep and wake up and work again. You
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: can't out work, you cannot. Talent can never outwork ethic.
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: When you have that work ethic, that's what's going to
• 51:07
  Speaker 4: take you through. Yes, work, work, work.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: I love that. Ooh that is so good.
• 51:13
  Speaker 1: I wanted to ask you all, know if we've ever
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: talked about this, but with all the work, how do
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: you ground yourself when it gets too heavy?
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: I struggle with that, really, yeah, because I think that
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: what has happened is, and this is personal. I have
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: for so long been so laser focused on the work
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: that a lot of my life is kind of taken
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: a vaccine. Like I'm not married, I don't have kids,
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: I don't you know, and so much of that personal
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: stuff I found to be less significant because I was working.
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: So I'm in the point now I'm getting a little
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: bit older and it's looking a little lone that you
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: stand around in your house and it's like, oh, yeah,
• 51:51
  Speaker 4: you're about all right. You know, you can't find nobody
• 51:56
  Speaker 4: sit at the breakfast table, you know, But I I.
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: There.
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: I found I find ground and like solace and just
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: neutrality in other human like friends, and even a phone conversation,
• 52:13
  Speaker 4: a facetimeing. You call me every now and then and
• 52:15
  Speaker 4: we be on their phone. We go for two hours. Right,
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: You're like, oh lord, I gotta go, do you know?
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: It's just how it is.
• 52:20
  Speaker 4: But that helps to ground me, just talking to other people,
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: being with other people. And I feel like a lot
• 52:26
  Speaker 4: of my life is work, even when I'm enjoying it.
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: Like I can get grounded in my own things, especially
• 52:31
  Speaker 4: if I'm like auditioning for something or learning the script
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: or filming, you know, on something else. It helps me
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: to just go into something I care about that I
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: love that I developed like a child like Riley, you know.
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: But I find that in family and in food.
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: I like to cook.
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: I tell you, he can cook. I I why don't
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: you move to New York too far?
• 52:55
  Speaker 3: I know you gotta just you be up there all
• 52:57
  Speaker 3: the time. Please for me. She can also cook.
• 53:03
  Speaker 2: We can cook.
• 53:05
  Speaker 3: We're actually twins.
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: No, literally, everything you're sounding like like the.
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: Same people were like the same person with both air signs. Anyway,
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: I find that in just and just the right people.
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: And I also find it in just understanding when to
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: leave things, when to stop talking to certain people, when not,
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: when to say no. That's a whole nother podcast episode
• 53:26
  Speaker 4: to say no. But but you you, I have been
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: able to build a nucleus inside of myself that no
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: matter what's going on around me, I know where to
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: go when I need stillness, when I need peace. And
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: that that has come with therapy, that has come with age,
• 53:45
  Speaker 4: and it's also come with just the knowledge of just
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: being around people who I've seen do the same things.
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: And God, of course you know understanding that the possibility
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: is just not to preach but people, there's so much
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: to be said about different religions or you know, modern
• 54:04
  Speaker 4: day will make you feel like, you know, subscribing to
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: any type of organized religion, it's something that is less
• 54:11
  Speaker 4: than smart or less than scientific. But I think that
• 54:16
  Speaker 4: in my life, without a doubt, I know that none
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: of this would be possible without God. And I know it,
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: and so it ain't even up for a discussion for me.
• 54:24
  Speaker 4: And so God and the way that I pray and
• 54:27
  Speaker 4: the way that I manifest has been just a beautiful,
• 54:31
  Speaker 4: beautiful thing because there is proof, Yes, there is proof,
• 54:35
  Speaker 4: Like even when you get in a situation where you
• 54:37
  Speaker 4: feel like this is the worst thing that could ever
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: possibly happen, how many times have you been in that
• 54:41
  Speaker 4: worst thing that it happens and then it gets figured out?
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: And so I think that I always say it, say
• 54:46
  Speaker 4: it to myself, but I say it to other people too.
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: How many times does God have to show you until
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: you're able to say, you know what?
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: You got it?
• 54:54
  Speaker 3: Please?
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: Yes?
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: Because we love to try to figure it out ourselves.
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: We do. We can't fit taking a deeper hole.
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, go sit down somewhere really, you know. But yeah,
• 55:05
  Speaker 4: I find I find my centering God.
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: I find it in art. I find it in food.
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: I find it in fashion.
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: I love little piece of clothes.
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: Listen, I need to start a garment.
• 55:15
  Speaker 3: We need to stop.
• 55:17
  Speaker 2: I gotta let's put ourselves now. I'm putting myself in it.
• 55:21
  Speaker 3: Please maybe A I'm trying to think with us.
• 55:24
  Speaker 2: I got coming up?
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, unless it's like for work, a shopping fast until
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: the holidays, like till.
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: Let's tomorrow, neveryone.
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: It is currently the holidays, the holidays, I can do
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: a shopping fast until like.
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: Until the New Year. Okay till the New year sixty days.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for ourselves that if it's shopping like for Christmas
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: for your family, that doesn't count.
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna put them in it too. Hey, guys, you
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: saw it here first time. Got fast.
• 55:53
  Speaker 4: I don't know when this airs, but today is what
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: is it October twenty for We're gonna say twenty four
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: just because of the stuff that I have. People before
• 56:06
  Speaker 4: supposed stated check this is it, guys, and so I'm
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: gonna fa It's Crystal's fault. I'm going to fast. Merry
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: Christmas to you all.
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: Jesus is the reason for the season.
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: Yes he oh, yes, he yes, oh yes he is, yes,
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: all that, all of that, Yeah, cancel Christmas, guys.
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: It's about God.
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: Amen. I love you. I love you more, No, seriously,
• 56:34
  Speaker 2: I'm so proud of you. I have watched you grow.
• 56:39
  Speaker 2: Oh I'm not gonna cry today.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: I've watched you grow immature over the years, and just
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: the artist that you are, the man that you are,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: the friend that you are.
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: I couldn't ask for a better friend. And I'm just I'm.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: Happy to have you and share my platform with you,
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: just to share you with the world even more because
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: I don't think you do this enough to like actually
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: let people in. So thank you for allowing me to
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: interview you and just have that conversation so that they
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: can know you more, because you are truly an incredible human.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: I just love you.
• 57:15
  Speaker 3: Thank you for this comfortable and safe space.
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, seriously, I love it. So tell the people
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: where we can find you. You got merch?
• 57:23
  Speaker 4: You are?
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: Are you still on the college tour?
• 57:25
  Speaker 4: I just wrapped the college tool. Okay, thank you, thank you. Yeah,
• 57:29
  Speaker 4: I just wrapped the college to it. But there will
• 57:31
  Speaker 4: be merch available at hbcusical dot com. We're also working
• 57:34
  Speaker 4: on a collaboration line that I can't speak to now,
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: but it's going to be crazy.
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: I can't wait you to show you this. I can't
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: wait to show you this stuff.
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: And of course Instagram, Twitter, TikTok at Brian Jordan Junior
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: and also at Riley. The mixtape go stream it everywhere
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: that you stream. It's out there. It did really great
• 57:54
  Speaker 4: numbers in the first week, crazy and so I'm so
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: so blessed. Thank you so much, Chris, you are well.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: That was such an inspiring conversation with Brian and a
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: reminder that when you trust your calling. You can create
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: something bigger than yourself. Thank you for tuning in to
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: another episode of the Keep It Positive Sweetie Show. Don't
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this with
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: someone who can use a little positivity. Until next time,
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: I will see you guys, and make sure to keep
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: it positive.
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: Sweety right