Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Anna Paul x Mikaela Testa update, American woman in Pakistan goes viral on TikTok + Trisha Paytas' Big Broadway Dream

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Anna Paul x Mikaela Testa update, American woman in Pakistan goes viral on TikTok + Trisha Paytas' Big Broadway Dream · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meissner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  Let's get right into the stories for today.
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  But before I do that, Please remember to rate, review and
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  It helps us so much. All right, let's get into the
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  stories. The 1st right that I have for
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  you guys today is I'm going to be giving you guys an Anna Paul
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  Michaela Testa update. Earlier this week, Michaela
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  Testa posted a lengthy TikTok video filled with accusations
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  against her friend Anna Paul. Both Michaela and Anna are
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  Australian influencers and Only Fans models.
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  They've been friends for 10 years, and Michaela dated Anna's
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  brother Addis from 2019 to 2022. You can go back to my video from
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  Monday about all of this, but essentially Michaela accused
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  Anna of being kind of like a fraud and lying to fans about
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  how nice she is, how wealthy she grew up, and also accused Anna's
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  brother Addis of abusing her. OK, so Anna has responded to
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  some of these accusations in her own video.
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  First thing I want to address is that apparently in 2021 fan came
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  up to me and we hugged and after she walked away I said Oh my God
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  she was so fat and sweaty. Now I do not call my fans fat
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  sweaty. However I may have called her
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  sweaty. She said there's a lot of
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  missing contacts from the information and like the photos
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  going around the Internet that quote UN quote, like prove that
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  Anna is lying about growing up poor.
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  So for example, she says that her family house that Michaela
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  referenced in the TikTok video was not her childhood home.
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  It was a house that I guess her dad bought when she was already
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  in adults, she says. There's this photo going around
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  of her in first class as a 13 year old and she explained that
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  she and her brother were moved to 1st class so they were
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  traveling to visit family in Germany alone without their
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  parents. Her uncle paid for economy
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  flights for them. Anna and her brother were moved
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  to 1st class after her brother vomited and because they were
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  like kids flying alone, the flight attendants there was
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  extra space up at the front and they brought them to the front.
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  There's a segment of audio from Anna's video that is going viral
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  everywhere. When?
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  We can't afford school uniforms. It makes me feel broke when I'm
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  eleven, when I'm 10 and all my friends can afford something and
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  my parents can't, It makes me feel broke when they say, oh, I
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  don't know how we're going to afford rent next week.
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  That makes me scared and makes me feel broke.
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  But that is kind of the gist of what she's saying regarding like
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  the conversations around her wealth growing up.
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  And she finished by saying this type of stuff can lead to
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  intense bullying and 'cause people to take their own lives,
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  which is very true. We did not address Michaela's
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  claims about Addis. OK, so since Michaela posted
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  that video, fans were asking for some receipts to her claims and
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  she said she would provide them. However, she returned with an
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  Instagram story that says quote, hi guys, I did promise receipts.
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  While going through and actually collecting them and reviewing
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  them, I realized something very, very sinister was happening to
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  me for many years. This is something the police
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  should be seeing, not the Internet.
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  Although at some stage I will be able to share my story in full
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  as I have shared every piece of my life with you all so far, I
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  will have to delay for now. I will be moving forward legally
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  the way it should be. But yeah, I mean I don't
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  actually follow either of them closely, just very like
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  peripherally. So I don't have a strong opinion
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  over this. I know that Anna has a lot of
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  fans, but I also know that there are a lot of people who are
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  coming out of the woodwork saying like this is Anna's
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  thing. You know, I've known this about
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  her for so long. She is really fake.
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  I mean, at the end of the day, I think it's really, it's not that
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  crazy to say that an influencer's public persona is
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  different than who they are behind the scenes.
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  I do think a lot of us are like aware of that in theory, but I
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  think when we hear it explains like this, it's almost like
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  breaking the 4th wall and we hear specific examples and it
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  feels like it's all contradictory.
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  It's like we always like kind of know this in theory that
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  everything someone puts out as a performance.
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  Like even if you think about like a TikTok, if you guys have
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  ever made your own TikTok or anything you post on Instagram
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  or whatever, like you're performing in a way for the
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  camera, whether it's just a photo that you've taken or a
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  TikTok you've made or whatever. It's like we all know that.
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  But I think to hear it like this so blatantly, it can feel a bit
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  like disturbing. But I think there's a lot of
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  people who feel kind of betrayed by Anna from this whole
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  situation. I think she's lost a million
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  followers. I mean, she had 7 million, but I
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  saw somewhere, I haven't actually checked with myself
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  that she's lost about 1,000,000 followers across her platforms.
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  And a lot of these influencers have very young audiences.
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  And it's hard to grasp. It's hard to grasp for all of
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  us. You know, I can't imagine
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  growing up as like a Gen. Z Gen. alpha any generation now
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  moving forward with TikTok from such a young age.
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  And just like social media from such a young age, it feels a bit
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  like a dystopian. All right, the next story that I
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  have for you guys is I'm going to be sharing the story of the
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  American woman who is going viral for refusing to leave
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  Pakistan. I'm sure a bunch of you guys
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  have seen this, but there is an American woman going viral all
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  over TikTok because she refuses to leave Pakistan in the pursuit
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  of love. Well, initially love.
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  OK, so the woman's name is Anya Andrew Robinson and she is 34
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  years old. In October, she took a flight to
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  Pakistan to marry a 19 year old man that she met on Facebook.
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  She's 34, he's 19, he's a teenager.
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  His family reportedly refused the union, and when she landed,
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  they didn't even get a chance to meet up.
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  Reportedly, there's like some conflicting reports.
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  People aren't totally sure, but it seems like they probably
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  didn't even meet. But Anya doesn't take no for an
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  answer. So she allegedly camped outside
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  his family's apartment for 30 hours.
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  His family vacated, locked the doors.
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  She didn't care. She stayed put and she was
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  refusing to leave the country for months.
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  And now she started doing these press conferences demanding
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  things from the Pakistani government.
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  And these demands change like every single day.
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  In one interview, she demanded, quote, I'm asking for $100,000
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  and I need $20,000 in cash by the end of this week.
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  That's my demand of the government.
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  Pakistan needs new buses, taxis and cars.
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  And then when asked what her plan was by a reporter, she said
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  none of your business. Another time she declared that
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  she was married to the 19 year old make.
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  Sure. You get this on your camera.
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  I'm married to Nidel Hamid. I'm on Nigel Hamid.
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  We are moving to Dubai very soon.
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  We're going to have our baby and Dubai.
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  Again, it's unclear if they've ever even met.
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  Local NGOs, authorities and even a governor in Pakistan offered
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  to fly her home, and she refused every time.
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  So this whole situation since the press conferences started
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  has been memed all over TikTok. People are standing her so hard
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  for, like, her audacity for the chaos of this whole situation.
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  But it's important to remember when we're watching things like
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  this that just feels so unhinged, like there is a real
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  person behind this account, behind these press conferences
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  that we're watching behind the screen who is very obviously
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  struggling, like, is very obviously unwell.
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  And yes, like, it is funny that she is making these demands.
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  It is honestly really sweet the way that the entire country, you
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  know, the government, they've all been supporting her and
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  being so patient with her. And I think handling this with a
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  lot of care as far as I have seen.
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  And a lot of people saying that like this has really shown such
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  an amazing side to this country because the way that they're
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  just handling this with such grace is amazing to see.
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  So it does just kind of feel like we're making a spectacle
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  out of someone who is mentally unwell.
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  And I recognize that I am contributing to that by
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  reporting on this story. Of course, the latest reports
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  that I could find do claim that she finally accepted a flight
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  home, but it is unclear if this is true.
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  OK. And the last story that I have
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  for you guys is that Tricia Paytas has made made her
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  Broadway debut. Trisha made her Broadway debut
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  this week and it was literally * studded.
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  So Trisha's always talked about how being on Broadway is, you
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  know, like her ultimate dream. But she obviously never thought
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  that that would come to fruition.
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  But here's how it happened. So on April Fools Day 2024,
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  Broadway producer Kobe Casal ran an article on his website about
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  Tricia Paytas playing Roxy in Chicago.
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  I guess he does these kind of like, joking announcements,
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  articles on April Fools here and there.
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  And the reception to this, like, so Tricia reposted this and was
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  kind of like playing along. And the reception to this was so
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  insane. And it made him think like, oh,
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  maybe this is a good idea. Like, why can't Tricia be on
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  Broadway? He obviously saw that like
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  people would show out for this, so he approached Trisha's team
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  and they put together her show, Trisha Paytas's Big Broadway
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  Dream. The show debuted on February 3rd
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  with 1700 fans in the audience and thousands of people
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  streaming it online worldwide. According to today.com Quote,
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  Paytas pulled out references to her now viral YouTube videos
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  while also bringing out Broadway legends like Sutton Foster, Ben
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  Platt and Rachel Zeigler as guests in exaggerated on stage
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  interviews for a makeshift version of her her podcast while
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  also singing some duets. Of course, the absurd One Night
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  Only special gave fans around the world a glimpse into the
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  mind of Paytas, complete with throwbacks to her meme worthy
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  moments like crying on her kitchen floor, while also
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  incorporating nods to her podcast with Broadway stars.
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  I mean, I would actually die to have been there.
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  That would be so cool to see. No matter how you feel about
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  Tricia, she is truly an Internet legend.
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  And this, I mean, I've talked about this so many times, but
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  like her renaissance, again, no matter how you feel about her,
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  her renaissance these past couple of years is honestly
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  shocking to see. It's I don't, I don't know if we
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  have seen a bounce back this hard before.
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  This is such like a mainstream stamp of approval and she's just
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  had this, I was going to say like a second wind to her
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  career, but I don't even know if you could call it that because I
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  don't even think it compares to like the first quote, UN quote
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  wind of her career. You know what I mean?
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  I think this is like another level of her career that was
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  completely like, you can't even compare it to earlier days.
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  She's basically getting everything she ever wanted and
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  it only took what, 1520 years to get there.
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  So if that's not an inspiring story to keep going, I don't
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  know what is. It's crazy the cast that she had
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  in this. I know it was one night only,
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  but still, that is so wild. All right guys, well, that's it
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  for mini scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  Please rate review and subscribe.
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  I love you guys and there will be a deep dive tomorrow and then
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  I will talk to you on Monday. Bye.