Latest / Daily Inspiration: The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Overcoming the Odds: UniverSoul investors and friends questioned his business plan to showcase Black talent.

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Overcoming the Odds: UniverSoul investors and friends questioned his business plan to showcase Black talent. · Daily Inspiration: The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I am Rashwan McDonald, the host
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: their companies, and speak with nod profits who are making
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald, our host a weekly and money
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Making Conversation Master Class show. The interviews and information is
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: that this show provides off for everyone. It's time to
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: stop reading other people's success stories and start.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Living your own.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: My guest is the founder of the Universe Soul Circus,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: an African American man who had a vision of creating
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: a circus with a large percentage of people of color performing.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Please he's work with the
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Mister Cedric Walker, how you doing, Cedric?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Hey, Sean, I are you and thank you a lot.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: This opportunity, you know, it's great. First of all taking
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: the time to come to my show.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: I know you're.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Traveling around the world and around the country of the
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: United States.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: What city are you in right now? That's in New Orleans, Louisiana. Wow,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: that's a good Cajun food.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Good food down there that if everybody wants to Now
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: you know you're traveling man, and I traveled Like when
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I was ninety four, I wanted to be a stand
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: up comedian.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: I want to a tease said. I thought I was
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: gonna be the next Richard Pride. I thought I would
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: be next Adye Murphy.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Now in eighteen ninety four, you had an idea about
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: a circus.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: How can that happen?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Please help explain it to my audience, because it sounds
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: incredible to me. A vision will come to you like that.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, So we were doing gospel plays. We actually had
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: a play.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: I was working on a play called Wicked Ways and
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: with Michael Matthews out of Detroit, and Wicked Ways was
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: about a lot of the challenges that our community faces.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: It dealt with It dealt with kids growing up in
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: the inner city and getting into gangs. It dealt with
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: fathers raised and step signs as teenagers it dealt with
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: professional wives and mechanic husbands. It just dealt with a
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: lot of the challenges that our community faces. And I
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: saw kids in the theater. I saw whole families, and
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: it looked like I was in Pittsburgh at the Benadum Theater,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: and it looked like I saw a father, mother, granddaughter, grandchild.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: And I asked the play right, I said, man, this
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: is a gospel play.
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: I know it's clean. I asked Mike, and he said,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: it's because theater is the oldest.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Form of entertainment and went all the way back to
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: be or not to be. You could look on that stage,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: on the Shakespearean plays and see yourself, and our community
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: is getting a chance to look.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: At itself do these plays.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: So that triggered the idea to create something that, because
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: we were very out entertainment was socially. It was comedy,
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: It was R and B, it was jazz, it was
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: you know, hip hop, right, it was dance. It was
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: kind of a mixed bag of everything. And I said,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: how do we I got my team and I said,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: how do we create something that touches everybody? So I
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: went to the library and every day eight I worked.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: I worked, made part.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Of my job reading about black entertainment from the turn
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: of the century. And what I found was we trained
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: animals in the varvevillion days black people trained horses and
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: dogs and and so I shared that with my team
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: and and the idea was from that the circus germinade.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: But it was all having something for every generation of
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: our family, something where father, mother, daughter, granddaughter and grandson
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: could all sit on the same beat bent and enjoy
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: each other, enjoying the shop. So that's that's what started that,
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: you know, you know when I went because I know Michael,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Michael Matthews is a great guy and uh my many
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: days of being under Steve Harror morning.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: So we promoted a lot of his plays.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: We probably bopped here's a couple of times in a
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: good way. And so when I talk about the circus,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you know, you did all this research, But it was
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the naysayers out.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: There, right, c man. My investors all were in.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: Promably, both both black and white. I had fun in
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Bundy guys, and they all just said me, you are correct,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Let well not go circus. Wow, you know that was
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: it just nobody believed. So I I, you know, I did.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: I felt it. I don't know where and what, but
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: thede the course.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: But it was challenging because we get stereotype, you know,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: we get stereotype on technology, we get stereotype on the
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: type of entertainment of movies that we want to see.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: And also that means the world can stereotype of. So
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: I commend you in pushing back and say, look, I
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: feel that within my gut and my research.
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: This could work.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: And then thirty years later, because you're celebrating your thirtieth
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: year of Universal Circus Zoul, I don't know if I'm
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: gonna do dog Conneia's version or we'll going with the
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Resaw version, but either way it got a lot of
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: soul than the brother. And so the name, I'm sure
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you have research when you did the name as well,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: correct Universal.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, the original.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Name was Universal. I was back and forth with my
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: team Universal. I wanted you Soul from the beginning. So
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: when we got to l A, Universal Studio sent us
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: a cease and desist on Universal big top circuits. So
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: we were we asked them back, well, we want to
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: use Universe Soul, which was my original idea to use,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: and they said absolutely, yeah, Well.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: And sad.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: You look around at the daff going told you now
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: you gotta be out here looking bad because you had
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: to follow my original idea, we wouldn't even be it. Now.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: This is the good part of it, you know, because
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: we jumped a little bit. We had the idea, we
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: got the name. But you were traveling. How did you
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: you had the nay sayers about the whole concept centric
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: and how did you get to acts originally? How did
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: you start putting the circus together? Well, we we you know,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: when I wanted to do circus, and part of my
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: research was that, you know, circus entrepreneurs traveled the world
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: and I couldn't wait to travel the work it would have.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: It was going to be a great experience. But that's
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: what it took to do Circus. But I do want
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: to say that we started in nineteen ninety four in Atlanta,
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: and initially it was an effort to the initial concept
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: and vision for it was to uplift and celebrate the
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: positive achievements and cultural contributions of African Americans through a
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: family attraction. And so that was that was the you know,
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the impetus for what people are seeing, and that still remains.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: In the show what you saw.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: It's that feeling that they get once they come under
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: that big time. It's that soul that we put in
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: it that that didn'tentiate us.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I went.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Around the world, and it was challenging to look for talent,
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: but I saw it now. I said, you know our audience,
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: you know, we can't just give them plad food. Now
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: gotta add that spic. I can't.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: I got it pretty real black people, you know, black people.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan McDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 8:39
  Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
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• 8:49
  Speaker 2: So uh so, no, I went around the world and
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: and just looked for and and it was amazing how
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: many blackform circus performers were doing phenomenal things that were
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: out there. A lot of minure in right here in America.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: The King Charles True playing basketball on unicycles. Just stuff
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: that came out of the hood came out and basketball
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: on unicycles was the only thing, we were the only
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: ones that did. So you had so many originals. There
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: was a girl named Pamela, Pamela Hernandez, and Pamela was
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: an African American from La but she was one of
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: the most respected ralists. She would she was on Ringling Brothers,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: but she'd be in those arenas, but thirty forty feet
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: in the air doing trick. No that under her, her
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: and her partner. And when when when I started listing
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: the name the acts that I wanted to bring the
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: rest and they were black, and the rest of the industry,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: the Europeans, anybody in the industry knew and respected these
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: black artists to the hides and right, oh, Lamella is
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: gonna be there. I'm gonna be there. King Charles is
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: gonna be there.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna beat it. Wow.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: So it was amazing the quality of black entertainment even
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: back then in circuits.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Sods, we know it's really important as we tell this story,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: and thank you for allowing me to ask these questions,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: because I think the origin story or universe soul is
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: as important as what's happening now. Because in my life,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: I first was introduced to your circus in two thousand
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: and five, I was managing Steve Harvey and we was
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: on WBLS in New York City and that circus when
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I went into the first time, I didn't know what
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: to think, you know, I went in there with curiosity,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: but I walked away inspired.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Because it was a circus by us for us. That
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: was the first thing that really push me to positivity.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: And so I'm sure over the years there have been
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: different versions of the circus as you go.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Because the circus I saw in two.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Thousand and five had an elephant, and the circus I
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: saw this past we kid recently didn't have an elephant
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: or any animals at the time. I think it was
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: a lion too that I saw at the time of two.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: So talk about the transition and the vision of.
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: The circus over the years.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: So, you know, just like Michael Jordan's said, you have
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: to keep your eye on where the ball is going,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: not where the ball is. We try to and entertainment
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: is a form, is an art form that will society forward,
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: So we try to inspire that new direction and wherever
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: it takes.
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: So it's kind of organic.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: It's just a platform for young people to express new
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: ideas through their their artistry. So I mean, we've kind
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: of it was challenging with you know, to even think
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: about or dare to venture into the show without the animals.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: But we realized how the laws were changing, you know,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: the people were changing, and we no longer could carry
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: the animals.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: From state to states.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Some states could, some states wouldn't.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: But but but what we what we.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Found out is that our cultural artistry, our who we
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: are and how much fun we can have, and that
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: that the family unit where you're all we're all grandmother again,
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: grandmother father doing a sign, all enjoying each other, enjoying
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: the show.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: We laid into that how do we be.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Authentically us in a perfonance that is for everybody at
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: the same time and and shares our culture.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: So a lot of the affro Beach music, a lot
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: of the music you've heard in the show is kind
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: of new ending music.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: A lot of the new dance styles that American hip
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: hop has inspired around the world, whether they inspired it
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: in China or Africa, it came from our streets, came
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: from America, and it inspired the world. And so we
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: we've incorporated a lot of that inspiration. But just that
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: non stop energy that is Germane to our culture and
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: our celebration sort of like a family reunion under the
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: big Top. So we just leanked into our story and
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: we continue to do that as it involves. Let's speak
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: of Cedric Walker, the founder a Universal Circus, an inspirational
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: voice in our community because he had a vision, a
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: vision where a lot of other people did deny.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: He did his research, he walked.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Past the days there, and thirty years later he's celebrating
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: the vision that we all can be entertained by. Because
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: the audience I saw was very diverse, and not by accident,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: because I saw it in the area of Atlanta, Georgia,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: which is the Atlanticxation, which is a mixed race, very
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: upproperately mobile area of Atlanta, Georgia, and the audience not
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: all that. I knew it was mixed race because the
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: friends of mine, as they went to the show before me,
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: it went wow. I didn't expect it to be that diverse.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Is that the goal now or it just happens? Our
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: goal is to stay authentically black, period? And how do
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: we do that?
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: That is what transcends culture.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: Globally, being a technically who you are, So you know,
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: we don't have a direction again except for the origin
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: of our show to uplift and celebrate the positive achievements
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: and cultural contributions of African American and still family entertainment.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: So you know we're not going after any specific honey, right,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: run after the world. Awesome and thank you for saying that.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Now let's talk about these acts. The bottom line is
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: the acts. Now, this Chinese Trapiez act that you got
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: the dads with my daughter, you know, she's a I'm
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: gonna be honest with you, she's one of those people
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: who came in there with doubts Cedric because she's a
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Circus are late.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: You know, she peaks circus are late. She said, Dad,
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: are you sure?
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, hey, these are my people. Now, my boy, Cedric,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: they're gonna take care of it. When she left my brother.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: She is a one hundred percent universal fan. Okay, so
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: know that. But that Trapeze act that put on it,
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: she says that's.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: Better than anything she's ever saw anywhere, and she's seen
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: by fifteen of those shows. So talk about that trap
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: that the Chinese Trapeze Act. Right, So we had the
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: we have to guess the grace and blessings of driving
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: scouts around the world, young scouts that are always looking
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: for what's new in different countries.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: And our scouts found.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: This troop in a in in their school, performing and
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: hadn't been out of the country yet, but had one
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: gold in every competition in China. And there's no fifteen
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: sixteen people flying through the air and no trapeze act
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: in the world. So I said, I have to have
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: that act. And so when the price tag uh with
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: the price yeah uh, the guy said, we buys that.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: He's crazy, and we bought as we wanted because that's
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: what circus.
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: Is all about. It's just bringing unbelievable stuff to the audience.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Well, you know the different So that really amazed me
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: was a distance between them swinging. I was stunned by
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: that distance. I was like, wow, I've.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Never seen this athleticism area or in leather sism like this.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: So so again this is one thing. Another thing that
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: dazzled me, and a lot of things dazzled me.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: By the way, Cedric.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: The the was the I think the couple that was
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: on the roller skates, oh yeah, from CBE but as
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: the al Cabana Knights roller stating thing Cedria. They're right
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: there the g fource of them spinning. I was I
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: was taken aback, I was taking it back there. What
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: is the training like when you get a couple like that,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: because it's danger involved, right, So everything you see under
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: the big tip, we carriated it. It's it's been four
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: or five years before it even hits out stage and
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: it could have been in school, in their schools. We
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: work with schools all over the world. We work with
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: schools in Ethiopia and Cuba and South America, we work
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: with schools in China, and we identify what we want
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: and depends on what level of of of of training
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: they have achieved and what countries they come from, we
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: bring we send. We send trainers to Ethiopia, we send
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: trainers to West Africa, we send trainers UH to South America,
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: or we bring the performers here, send them to training centers.
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: Here is sort of UH. They get out of what
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: you would consider maybe high school or entry level, and
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: then we take them to that doctorate level in terms
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: of really putting the icing on the cake in terms
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: of performance.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: So that's came from two schools. There was a dance
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: school and.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Cuba where a sort the Young Lady and acrobatic school
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: and they were combined and they spent a few years
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: training in Cuba. Then we brought them here in sun
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: to Las Vegas to elevate their training. Then we got
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: them under the Big Top and created a theme, the
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: whole Cuban theme around them. So whatever you see, I mean,
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: we spent a good five years of investment at about
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: forty to fifty grand a year just training these actents.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: You see our idea for our artists work, and some
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: of them we don't have to train like the Caribbean, right,
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: their whole culture is you know all about To me,
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: that's one of the greatest acts on our show, that
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: their culture is desired into. Uh.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: They you look at their faces.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: In this smile and there the happiest they performed, and
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: they're going under fire four or five rows. And you know,
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know the culture in terms of the costuming,
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: the characters. Uh, there's still well everything means something, nothing
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: is by chance, nothing is just for flamboyancy.
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: All your eyes.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: It all traces back to that culture in some meaningful way.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: So everything is deep rooted. That that you saw, Well,
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: you know, the amazing thing.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: Like I said, you want to share everybody my thoughts,
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: my adventure. Go there and see if the show is
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: over two hours long. It's not a thirty minute show
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: or an hour show. Hour that it starts on time.
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: Let me tell you all this Universal Soul Circus starts
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: on time, okay, because of the fact that a lot
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: of people don't believe that because they come in. Okay,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: its circus is professionally run. Not saying it wasn't, but
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: people need understand you can miss out on some great
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: entertainment if you don't arrival time because Universal Sould Circus
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: starts on time. Now, let's talk about the acts from Ethiopia,
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: because I noticed you.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: I'm looking at Exam. I'm a little producer.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: To Centric and there was a lot of acts from Ethiopia.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Tell us about that.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: So etheo Opia is the leading world.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: They're leading the world and producing and providing black circus
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: for swampers.
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: Wow, all over.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Europe, all over we had the we have. We're very
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: proud that we got into Ethiopia and the maybe nineties
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: ninety six, ninety seven, ninety eight and started working with
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: those circus schools and we were the first to bring
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: an Ethiopian act out of Ethiopia to a circus touring
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: in America. They had I think that they had schools
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: that were set up in Ethiopia mainly to train kids.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: It was a program that were and developed that was
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: developed by some European circuit well European circus entrepreneurs, and
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: the idea was to help the government.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: Keep the kids off the street. So they were training
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: them circus arts and it was cool.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: It was a good idea, but the performers showed such
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: great enthusiasm and capacity until when I went there, I
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: was totally blown away at the quality of of of
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: some and the shows were all about messages and they
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: had full circus shows that were you know, teaching kids
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: about AIDS or teaching kids about you know, working, They
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: taught They had a lot of the But we we
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: were one of one of the first, and we've set
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: invested a lot of money in training in Ethiopia because
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: the kids show.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: So much promise. Uh so we're very proud of the
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: work that they've done.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: We sponsor a big festival there or one of the sponsors.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: Of they have.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: But there's some great We have a duo aerial act
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: that I've never seen and then thirty years I've seen
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: just about everything, but that duo, those two girls up.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: In the air.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: You saw them, they were They moved at a speed
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: that no other duo aerial act will move at. I
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: think even dare to move that fast, changing all those
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: positions thirty feet off the ground with no no net.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: Net, no net.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: And you know, I won't described in detail, but what
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: he's saying is are just selling the significance of what
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: they're doing because it's impressive. And they were doing some
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: things outer you said, I was going, is she about
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: to do that?
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: Really? Okay?
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Now these sisters or they were their twins, No, no,
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: they work together. They come out of the school. We
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: have in the performance. We have the hoop diving act,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: we have the girls in aerial act, and we have
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: the three acts the Tea Board and those are the
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: three best strongest schools in Ethiopia.
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: We have their top acts.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: So those are three of the top acts from the
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: strongest trainers and producers and Alpia and we were graced
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: with that and blessed because we were one of the
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: early pondeers and helping them with training and programming. Wow,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: beautiful as we go. Like I said, it's nineteen eighty four,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: you had the vision. We're sitting here down thirty years later.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: What's on the horizon.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, our culture is so rich and it deserves
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: so much and we've got it.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: There's a lot we have to do.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, family and it just didn't in
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: formly attraction industry. Ice shows that we have yet to challenge.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's a Bourbon Street while we have the street.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's just so much that's that's what. It
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: has to be authentic and it has to be created authentically.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: But I have a lot of ideas. I have ideas
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: that should live way past me, and I have a
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: lot of challenges. This at the tip of the iceberg
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: with my friend. That the fact you allowed me to
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: take time and your business schedule because you running the circus. Okay,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: I'm just running a little small business with animals and
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Chappe sig and all kinds of human beings run around
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: here trying to understand what life is. You're the edge
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: paint in business. That's where you started. You had the
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: old run of animals, the whole Big Top theme. You
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: you did the gospel plays, which are very familiar with.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: But the bottom line said, you just wanted to do
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: family entertainment, correct, Yeah, No, I thought it was the
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: need for it, you know, and I saw it and
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: we needed this. We need something that uplifts our families
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: and joins us together. It joins the generations. It ties
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: the young when of four year oldest watching their parents
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: sing soul karaoke to al Green and the grandparents watching
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: it and doing the latest stint and the with the
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: fresh clowns in the ring, it just ties generations to that.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: It really did because it was some little girl.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: There was a song that they those rappers they started playing.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: It was like thirty girl and little girls and probably
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: a body in the fifth grade was singing. I went,
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know what they're doing with a boy. It
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: is really enjoy we to watch the connection because they
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: just took off and did the little dance and hit
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: every word and it was just fantastic.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: But thank you for fighting me down there to see history,
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: my brother, because you're making history man.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: It was diversity, the safety, the professionalism walking in that door.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Man. It was just a clean environment, safe environment. And again,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: ladies and gentlemen, universe soul circus starts on time. Remember that.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: Don't let nobody push no stereotype. Not saying this out there,
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: but people generally think that when you do black things,
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: you know cpee time. You know he gonna start with
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: it on the stall, not their circus. My brother, thank
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: you for the time, Thank you, thank you so much.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: He appreciate it.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: hosted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: on the show today and thank you I was listening
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: to the audience now. If you want to listen to
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: any episode I want to be a guest on the show,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: visit Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is Moneymaking Conversation.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: your gifts.
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: Keep winning.