Johnny Ray Gill | From SundanceTV’s “Rectify” to Prime Video’s “Cross” | Tale of a Prospective Gent

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WEBVTT00:00.858 --> 00:05.330[SPEAKER_01]: a handy bar commercial or a serial commercial is producing a movie.00:05.751 --> 00:10.504[SPEAKER_01]: Your joints might be whack, it just might be whack.00:10.524 --> 00:12.209[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Story and Craft.00:12.770 --> 00:14.996[SPEAKER_00]: Now, there's your host, Mark Preston.00:15.016 --> 00:16.099[SPEAKER_02]: Well, welcome back.00:16.079 --> 00:21.348[SPEAKER_02]: Glad to have you back here again another episode of story and craft you make it so much fun.00:21.448 --> 00:32.687[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, thank you so much for coming back by and if this is your very first entry into the world of story and craft I welcome you with open arms and thank you so much for checking out the show.00:32.667 --> 00:49.451[SPEAKER_02]: Today sitting down with a guy, I got to tell you, he's one of those, one of those people who you meet and you go, you know, there are still other people out in the world who, they come from a place or a background and a point of view and it's like, thank goodness he's out there, doing his thing.00:50.012 --> 00:58.084[SPEAKER_02]: Johnny Ray Gill, you can see him right now, season two of Cross on Prime Video, you can see him right now, great character.00:58.064 --> 01:18.672[SPEAKER_02]: great actor also he's a writer creative just just a really interesting guy you know we talk a little food as we always do we talk spoken Spanish a tiny bit you know we just a very well rounded episode I think you'll really enjoy it and if you haven't had an opportunity to get introduced Johnny Regill well you know01:18.652 --> 01:19.833[SPEAKER_02]: Sit back, relax.01:19.873 --> 01:21.095[SPEAKER_02]: You'll enjoy the chat.01:21.435 --> 01:23.017[SPEAKER_02]: Hey, do me a favor if you would.01:23.097 --> 01:24.438[SPEAKER_02]: I always ask humbly.01:24.779 --> 01:29.144[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure whatever podcast app you use and we're on all of them.01:29.364 --> 01:31.486[SPEAKER_02]: Just go ahead and click follow.01:31.947 --> 01:34.349[SPEAKER_02]: Make sure to follow story and craft like the show.01:34.389 --> 01:35.150[SPEAKER_02]: Leave a comment.01:35.351 --> 01:38.214[SPEAKER_02]: It really does help people to find story and craft.01:38.574 --> 01:43.039[SPEAKER_02]: You can also check out the official website story and craft pod.01:43.019 --> 01:48.646[SPEAKER_02]: And we're on Substack, we're Substack, and all about supporting independent media.01:48.927 --> 01:52.431[SPEAKER_02]: And they're doing a great job, great repository of just cool stuff.01:52.612 --> 01:56.317[SPEAKER_02]: Just go to StoryEndCraft.substack.com.01:56.677 --> 01:57.398[SPEAKER_02]: And we're right there.01:57.819 --> 02:02.845[SPEAKER_02]: Tell you what, you're going to enjoy this conversation, Johnny Ray Gill, just a good dude.02:03.146 --> 02:04.828[SPEAKER_02]: And to me, that's kind of the highest honor.02:04.868 --> 02:06.190[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, just a good dude.02:06.610 --> 02:10.275[SPEAKER_02]: Think about the last person you referred to, and they're a good dude.02:10.255 --> 02:11.156[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you felt it.02:11.337 --> 02:12.438[SPEAKER_02]: They're solid citizen.02:13.019 --> 02:14.121[SPEAKER_02]: He's got a lot going on.02:14.201 --> 02:16.684[SPEAKER_02]: Great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.02:16.925 --> 02:17.946[SPEAKER_02]: So, let's do it.02:18.026 --> 02:22.232[SPEAKER_02]: Today, Johnny Ray Gilday, right here on Story and Craft.02:24.195 --> 02:25.337[SPEAKER_02]: We're about to get today.02:25.377 --> 02:26.018[SPEAKER_02]: Where you look at it?02:26.478 --> 02:27.940[SPEAKER_02]: I'm in LA right now.02:27.960 --> 02:31.826[SPEAKER_02]: I saw somewhere you were originally a Portland guy, right?02:32.146 --> 02:34.069[SPEAKER_01]: I am originally from Portland, Oregon.02:34.302 --> 02:38.649[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I way back and, you know, I say way back.02:38.669 --> 02:47.905[SPEAKER_02]: It's like 10 years ago, I did a small little, like a little mini series thing on ABC and there was an actor in there and I can't remember his name and he's from Portland and I was like, what's Portland like?02:47.925 --> 02:51.191[SPEAKER_02]: He's like, if you watch Portland, Landia, that's pretty much what it's like.02:51.211 --> 02:51.731[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, really?02:52.112 --> 02:54.416[SPEAKER_02]: So is that kind of the same experience you had grown up there?02:54.456 --> 02:55.618[SPEAKER_02]: It was a little bit different.02:55.666 --> 03:19.654[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, I don't come from the Portlandian part of Portland, yeah, that's a very specific experience, but you know, for me, I come from all black community in Portland in the Northeast area, so you know, it's a bit different from that, but Portland has a lot of different dynamics, you know, a lot of people in the national situation, you know, haven't got a chance to experience this yet.03:20.455 --> 03:21.356[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's why you're here.03:21.516 --> 03:25.521[SPEAKER_02]: You're going to educate us, you're03:25.737 --> 03:26.518[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, shoot.03:26.678 --> 03:28.780[SPEAKER_01]: Man, my mom.03:28.840 --> 03:36.869[SPEAKER_01]: She was a shift leader for, they make the, I guess, the silicone wafers that you turned into computer chips.03:36.889 --> 03:43.676[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, she was working on graveyard, my entire life at this silicone, you know, I guess factory.03:44.437 --> 03:46.899[SPEAKER_02]: You know, that's why a lot of cousin who got an Oscar.03:47.180 --> 03:52.285[SPEAKER_02]: And I guess, is that like a thing to work in all night doing that and she had to wear like that clean suit.03:52.265 --> 04:07.928[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the clean room, yeah, she was a shift leader, so there was definitely times I seen her in the, you know, in the clean room, so, so she's been doing that my whole life was wanting to be in a really great blessing because wherever I'm at in the world, she's kind of always on the right, on the right times on.04:07.908 --> 04:10.772[SPEAKER_01]: So she's helped to wake me up for to be on set.04:10.832 --> 04:16.100[SPEAKER_01]: Many times, tells me, you know, called me when I needed to get ready for a test and college, all those things.04:17.141 --> 04:18.503[SPEAKER_01]: And my dad, he bounced around.04:18.563 --> 04:21.107[SPEAKER_01]: He used to help make military trucks.04:22.209 --> 04:26.875[SPEAKER_01]: Then he also worked at a place called Raven Creamery with a, you know, they made butter and all that.04:27.637 --> 04:30.821[SPEAKER_01]: And then he worked at a bread factory as well.04:30.921 --> 04:32.864[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, working class people.04:33.285 --> 04:34.647[SPEAKER_02]: Were you an only care gyms?04:35.087 --> 04:36.970[SPEAKER_02]: Brothers and sisters also, about to die.04:37.152 --> 04:39.735[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, brothers and sisters, oh my god, three sisters.04:40.676 --> 04:44.801[SPEAKER_01]: Two of them are half sisters, but I don't call in that my dad had two kids before he met my mom.04:45.461 --> 04:48.205[SPEAKER_01]: So three sisters and a brother, and I'm in the middle of all of them.04:48.605 --> 04:57.956[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, sure, you the only one that ended up doing the theatrical thing or the, yes, I was the, yeah, I was the first one to go into the arts.04:58.356 --> 05:05.404[SPEAKER_01]: There are some artistic proclivities in the family, my sister can draw my dad can draw, but I didn't get the draw gene, I like to do his thing.05:05.384 --> 05:06.385[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, stick figures.05:06.426 --> 05:07.187[SPEAKER_01]: That's all I can do.05:07.267 --> 05:08.749[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I was the first one.05:08.769 --> 05:11.573[SPEAKER_01]: They like make it official and choose it as a career.05:11.994 --> 05:15.659[SPEAKER_02]: Did you folks like when you kind of introduced the idea of like, how am I going to be doing this thing?05:16.140 --> 05:19.144[SPEAKER_02]: This is kind of where I met, where they receptive to it, or where they like.05:19.405 --> 05:23.150[SPEAKER_01]: I'm always, well, she was really about you just finding, you know, your dreams.05:23.290 --> 05:24.372[SPEAKER_01]: And, um,05:24.352 --> 05:25.714[SPEAKER_01]: I did an internship.05:25.954 --> 05:44.944[SPEAKER_01]: I went to a health occupations high school and they have like this You know you're supposed to do a health occupations internships I was gonna do you know people want me to become an anesthesiologist a doctor at the whole night And I told my mom I was like, look, I don't I don't think I want to do that I started off In the arts as a spoken word poet.05:45.024 --> 05:48.469[SPEAKER_01]: I started writing poetry and doing performance poetry when I was in middle school05:48.449 --> 05:52.152[SPEAKER_01]: You know, right to pass the program called the Perspective Jins Club.05:52.773 --> 06:03.643[SPEAKER_01]: And I actually got my high school shout out to them to, instead of letting me do in the health arc, in-sernship, I was able to find a writing in-sernship with a writer named Mike Rich.06:03.663 --> 06:12.811[SPEAKER_01]: He wrote Finding Forster, the rookie, he wound up, he was working as a radio host I believe at the time.06:13.231 --> 06:18.456[SPEAKER_01]: And so I reached out to him.06:18.436 --> 06:25.051[SPEAKER_01]: And he was receptive so that won't be in my internship so those are my first kind of baby steps into the arts.06:25.472 --> 06:29.380[SPEAKER_01]: You were a member with you said perspective Jens club that I hear you're right or yes sir.06:30.122 --> 06:34.452[SPEAKER_02]: What is that kind of like a fraternal kind of organization for writers or something?06:34.492 --> 06:34.993[SPEAKER_02]: What is that?06:34.973 --> 06:43.165[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, no, it was an African-based Rice of Passage program on that center known elevating the African-American male to these status of true manhood.06:43.585 --> 06:45.949[SPEAKER_01]: It's based on the African ritual of Rice of Passage.06:46.690 --> 06:50.495[SPEAKER_01]: Most people know it stereotypically as you have to kill a lion to become a man.06:50.996 --> 06:55.783[SPEAKER_01]: That's not what it is here or in Africa.06:55.763 --> 07:00.614[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, it was the largest rights of passes program, west of the Mississippi, in Portland, Oregon.07:01.336 --> 07:09.394[SPEAKER_01]: We would have huge quasi-gallows in downtown Portland to celebrate the bringing in of quasi, and the seven parameters of manhood, et cetera.07:10.356 --> 07:14.886[SPEAKER_01]: So that program was very instrumental for my development as a young man as an artist.07:14.866 --> 07:16.910[SPEAKER_01]: as a culturally aware artist, et cetera.07:17.331 --> 07:23.462[SPEAKER_02]: Is that, you said, where you met this writer who was kind of like, oh no, that was, no, that was a separate situation.07:23.482 --> 07:29.533[SPEAKER_01]: That was through my high school, I reached out to him, you know, like I said, I sent him an email.07:29.553 --> 07:32.819[SPEAKER_01]: And he, this wasn't like he was doing internships.07:32.839 --> 07:35.404[SPEAKER_01]: I just was a young, you know, brother that reached out.07:35.424 --> 07:37.768[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, I'm, I think that's how you got to be.07:37.748 --> 07:38.910[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and you're that age.07:38.930 --> 07:43.318[SPEAKER_02]: You got to be like that, you know, because you don't you don't you got that it's not necessarily both of us.07:43.338 --> 07:46.163[SPEAKER_02]: You just don't know like I was the same way.07:46.203 --> 07:48.267[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to do I wouldn't do radio.07:48.287 --> 07:50.410[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, well, I'm just gonna get on the phone call these guys.07:50.450 --> 07:55.960[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you know, it's like you got to you got to be like, uh, uh, a jet app tells what I'm one of my07:55.940 --> 08:21.323[SPEAKER_02]: genius when it comes to comedy and his whole thing was he was just like it's not a boldness what is it you just don't you're fearless you know yeah you got that when you're younger you don't know what's what's a stake necessarily or you don't really know what you don't know which is kind of nice so so you did the spoken word thing so how and how did it show where you comfortable up in front of people early on where you would kind of the performer and the family or where you shy at all when you were younger.08:21.455 --> 08:23.958[SPEAKER_01]: Um, now I was a, I was a jokes to growing up.08:24.399 --> 08:29.165[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so, you know, um, I never knew that were translated into into the arts at all.08:29.485 --> 08:35.092[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but, uh, during the rights of passes program, they would put on cultural events.08:35.252 --> 08:38.836[SPEAKER_01]: And one of the cultural events they showed a film called slam.08:39.537 --> 08:41.300[SPEAKER_01]: Um, it won the Sundance Prize.08:41.340 --> 08:46.726[SPEAKER_01]: I believe in 1998, um, and Saul Williams is, um, the title character in that.08:46.806 --> 08:48.188[SPEAKER_01]: And I saw him.08:48.674 --> 08:51.898[SPEAKER_01]: There's a scene in a prison, and he did a pun.08:51.918 --> 08:56.883[SPEAKER_01]: They were about to kill this brother, and he does a poem that is so nuts.08:56.963 --> 08:58.866[SPEAKER_01]: I never forget the last line of it.08:59.206 --> 09:05.874[SPEAKER_01]: He walks out, you know, he goes, public in to me number one, one, one, one, one, one.09:06.675 --> 09:07.335[SPEAKER_01]: And there's a beat.09:08.176 --> 09:14.424[SPEAKER_01]: And then all the dudes I was about to kill them, they take a, there's a pause and they go, I don't know what I was just thinking.09:14.864 --> 09:15.745[SPEAKER_01]: I forgot.09:15.877 --> 09:24.064[SPEAKER_01]: And as a 14, 15-year-old kid, I said, I want to be able to do that.09:24.705 --> 09:28.128[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what started my career in spoken word.09:28.168 --> 09:31.851[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what took me, all that, that's what took me to theater.09:32.411 --> 09:45.883[SPEAKER_01]: When I got out to Philadelphia, when I went to Temple, I was performing out there in a professor saw me performing at one of the clubs and asked me to audition for this play called09:45.863 --> 10:00.902[SPEAKER_02]: As you're going through high school, you know, of course you were you're getting these little nuggets of things that we're getting your interests going Yeah, yeah, you're just just flowing But was there like you know the family wanted you to do the medical thing, but like what were you wanting to do what was it was there something like10:01.102 --> 10:04.569[SPEAKER_02]: you know, before you got the bug that bitch you when it came to performance.10:04.589 --> 10:05.572[SPEAKER_02]: So what were you thinking about?10:05.592 --> 10:08.057[SPEAKER_01]: I knew I wanted to be a writer.10:08.398 --> 10:10.382[SPEAKER_01]: I was writing in an elementary school.10:10.422 --> 10:12.106[SPEAKER_01]: I went back in some of my writing books.10:12.166 --> 10:20.764[SPEAKER_01]: And I've got like Jurassic Park 34 using as a short story using my classmates as10:20.744 --> 10:22.867[SPEAKER_01]: you know, characters and things like that.10:22.907 --> 10:24.650[SPEAKER_01]: So I always knew I wanted to write.10:25.111 --> 10:26.533[SPEAKER_01]: I might end up knowing what capacity.10:27.274 --> 10:29.618[SPEAKER_01]: Also, I knew that I cared about the planning.10:29.638 --> 10:31.521[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to be a zoologist at one point.10:32.242 --> 10:33.164[SPEAKER_01]: I care about the past.10:33.224 --> 10:35.848[SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to be an archaeologist at one point.10:36.689 --> 10:40.255[SPEAKER_01]: So those were my interests in the sciences and in the written word.10:40.375 --> 10:42.419[SPEAKER_01]: And so I always just followed my interests.10:42.459 --> 10:44.001[SPEAKER_01]: I never had a nine to five.10:43.981 --> 10:59.256[SPEAKER_01]: I'm every time my mom and me get a job, I will quit because I would say this is a waste of time Why I didn't come here to work at finish line or Isn't that kind of a feeling that you get whenever you're working a job if it's not moving if I was the same way with it doesn't feel like it's moving you forward10:59.236 --> 11:01.279[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that it's menial already.11:01.299 --> 11:02.481[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's just like I can't say.11:02.501 --> 11:03.482[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, no, I this.11:03.542 --> 11:04.524[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.11:04.624 --> 11:05.165[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.11:05.445 --> 11:10.512[SPEAKER_01]: I guess if I'm willing to be a sneakerhead or if I wanted to be a shoe maker, then cool finish line might, you know, fit the journey.11:11.654 --> 11:16.661[SPEAKER_01]: But some of that stuff I just was never was never in suit and I just wanted to be inside my book.11:16.741 --> 11:19.986[SPEAKER_01]: I read a lot wanting to be inside books and then being inside my Ryan book.11:20.006 --> 11:21.548[SPEAKER_01]: So I just followed that.11:21.528 --> 11:26.674[SPEAKER_02]: So you had your goals and you can aspiration to storytelling was kind of the vehicle to get it done sort of.11:26.934 --> 11:27.295[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.11:28.196 --> 11:30.338[SPEAKER_02]: So how did you end up, how did you end up in LA?11:30.378 --> 11:33.041[SPEAKER_02]: How did you make the trip from Temple out that way?11:33.061 --> 11:34.283[SPEAKER_01]: Oh man, windy road.11:34.343 --> 11:36.465[SPEAKER_01]: I actually was in LA before I went to Temple.11:36.986 --> 11:41.051[SPEAKER_01]: I got a bunch of scholarships and I came, I went to USC for a year.11:41.091 --> 11:43.013[SPEAKER_01]: I was in their film school.11:42.993 --> 12:05.743[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, man, they they hijacked all my scholarship money and the guy that recruited me to the school left the school my first year So I had to transfer and that's how I got off the temple And at temple I was a double major in film and theater and then I just let the face decide I did it for all the drama program all the top drama schools12:05.723 --> 12:25.437[SPEAKER_01]: My decisions for all the top film schools and the film schools cost a lot of money It's a lot of hidden caution there because you got to pay for tuition But then you also at least that when I was going you also have to pay for your films as well And I have no money like that and I got into all the top drama schools and so that's how you're here You're like a season out of cheap school to begin with12:25.417 --> 12:32.086[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I had a lot of student loans before after the first year, so I was already, you know, cooking in that regard.12:32.187 --> 12:38.135[SPEAKER_01]: So, after I left Temple, I went to drama school at UC San Diego with the Lahore Playhouse.12:38.936 --> 12:39.677[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.12:39.697 --> 12:43.903[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was there for three years and then after that, there's a showcase that happens.12:44.524 --> 12:48.049[SPEAKER_01]: I call it like the NFL draft for actors.12:48.029 --> 13:10.476[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Yale, UCSD and NYU at the time did the showcase together and so for me I was bad and I said look man, I don't care which of the three schools I go to all I got to do is getting that room at the end and I'm a shine so I got in that room, got the agent and then that summer I booked the role on this show called Hairies Law and moved up to LA.13:10.456 --> 13:11.878[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think about being in San Diego?13:11.898 --> 13:16.583[SPEAKER_02]: I used to live in Encinitas, which I guess is a little lower-level boy out there, but that's a beautiful part.13:16.643 --> 13:17.564[SPEAKER_01]: It's beautiful right there.13:17.584 --> 13:19.826[SPEAKER_01]: Very, very, very beautiful, very underrated.13:20.267 --> 13:24.812[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of people know about obviously LA, but I mean San Diego is beautiful.13:24.832 --> 13:26.674[SPEAKER_01]: La Jolla is absolutely gorgeous, man.13:27.434 --> 13:31.639[SPEAKER_01]: So it was a great incubation period to be able to work on theater and how you craft.13:32.059 --> 13:32.680[SPEAKER_01]: So here is law.13:32.700 --> 13:36.404[SPEAKER_02]: That was with, that was that old gosh.13:36.544 --> 13:37.285[SPEAKER_02]: She was misery.13:37.405 --> 13:38.286[SPEAKER_00]: Why am I wrong?13:38.326 --> 13:39.147[SPEAKER_02]: Kathy Bings.13:39.127 --> 13:39.929[SPEAKER_02]: can't be made.13:39.949 --> 13:41.192[SPEAKER_02]: So that's kind of cool to get on now.13:41.212 --> 13:41.533[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.13:41.834 --> 13:47.449[SPEAKER_02]: And yeah, saw you did a justify, uh, just as just a rectifying, uh, rectifying.13:47.469 --> 13:48.171[SPEAKER_02]: That's fine.13:48.191 --> 13:49.955[SPEAKER_02]: You know, always inflate the two of those.13:49.995 --> 13:50.176[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.13:50.316 --> 13:53.986[SPEAKER_02]: I know, um, I think so that JD JD, you know, JD ever more.13:54.748 --> 13:54.908[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.13:54.888 --> 13:57.591[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yes, yes, yes, there's no other.13:58.132 --> 14:08.063[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I've proudly lost out to a couple of gigs from back we were in New Orleans, you know, the last time I saw music, my birthday a little birthday shandig and just the nicest, most down the earth guy.14:08.183 --> 14:12.849[SPEAKER_02]: And I saw him, he would've got that because I was like, okay, that's he needs to land something good, you know.14:12.929 --> 14:19.917[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, but that's it's funny enough that's still on my list of, you know, there's so much stuff out there.14:19.897 --> 14:24.481[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, there's so many shows and movies and like, okay, I still haven't watched a game of thrones.14:24.501 --> 14:26.923[SPEAKER_02]: I'm still in those guys, I'm still catching up.14:26.943 --> 14:28.284[SPEAKER_02]: That's one of the shows on the list.14:28.625 --> 14:30.807[SPEAKER_02]: I'm now just getting into homeland.14:30.887 --> 14:32.508[SPEAKER_02]: I'm only like 15 years behind.14:32.528 --> 14:34.990[SPEAKER_01]: I'm catching, I always say you get to it when you get to it, man.14:35.031 --> 14:35.991[SPEAKER_01]: You get to it when you get to it.14:36.011 --> 14:38.954[SPEAKER_01]: There's so much going on and everybody's life and all that.14:39.074 --> 14:43.518[SPEAKER_01]: And so I always say you get to it when you get to it and that's the best thing about art.14:43.578 --> 14:47.281[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it finds you at the right time and sometimes you can't rush it.14:47.341 --> 14:49.043[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that happened to me with succession.14:49.023 --> 14:56.837[SPEAKER_01]: Um, I didn't get into succession until maybe season two and I had a great friend of mine from the festival circuit was like, bro, you need to watch this.14:56.857 --> 14:59.982[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, look, when I ain't trying to watch that man in the barn, I'm good.15:00.022 --> 15:04.590[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, just give it four or four episodes and I gave it to four.15:04.630 --> 15:06.333[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, yo, this is nuts.15:07.575 --> 15:10.440[SPEAKER_01]: So, you got to find it when it's the right time.15:10.420 --> 15:29.257[SPEAKER_02]: But when you were growing up, what was kind of artistically grabbing you, musically, and film, what were the things that kept you captivated and kind of, because I know you're in a writing, but any kind of artist, other things besides the your specific genre can get you to choose the flaw.15:29.777 --> 15:38.385[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, on hip-hop, I wouldn't be where I'm at, without hip-hop, most deaf, tall hip-quality,15:38.365 --> 15:57.395[SPEAKER_01]: They were very instrumental in my development as an artist based off, you know, the subject matter of their work, how deep it goes, the things about, you know, capitalism and the other isms that they're willing to tackle in their music was very instrumental for me as an artist.15:58.777 --> 16:01.842[SPEAKER_01]: And then also too, like I would just sense that.16:01.822 --> 16:03.867[SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking about a lesson before dying.16:03.887 --> 16:07.697[SPEAKER_01]: I'm trying to think of books that really hit me when I was younger The animal series.16:08.138 --> 16:17.502[SPEAKER_01]: I love science fiction There's a book about all these like Personified rats called red wall that I would read so16:17.482 --> 16:27.714[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, man, Tony Morrison, there's so much James Baldwin, there's so much that I read when I was younger, you know, I really grabbed things fall apart by Chenwa Chebe, so, yeah.16:28.495 --> 16:47.218[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you're kind of the, the energy, when you look at hip hop and, you know, I'm not saying it was my, like the very first radio station I worked for, this back 1990, and it was kind of a mix of top 40, and it was, they call it,16:47.198 --> 16:54.707[SPEAKER_02]: And speaking of John, like Johnny Gill, Keith Sweat, all that, and then they'd also play like New Kids in the Block.16:54.747 --> 16:55.227[SPEAKER_02]: It was a career.16:55.247 --> 17:10.705[SPEAKER_02]: It was the weirdest mishmash, but there was, there was, but that's coming off the back end of, you know, when hip hop was really getting going, but like now, it's, I don't know, like, for someone like you who, who, who, the written word, the spoken word, it's important.17:10.725 --> 17:12.767[SPEAKER_02]: How has hip hop and your mind changed?17:13.237 --> 17:20.605[SPEAKER_02]: from what was inspiring you to now, is it a progression or is it a different thing?17:20.986 --> 17:31.277[SPEAKER_01]: I think it has gone the way of, I think Duke Ellison had this quote when art and commerce collide art ultimately suffers.17:31.297 --> 17:35.802[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's gone the way that many things go in this American wilderness when,17:35.782 --> 17:40.147[SPEAKER_01]: He started infusing capitalism and materialism and corporate interests and all that stuff.17:40.167 --> 17:49.796[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when hip hop was first started out in the 80s and in the 90s, it was people telling the stories about parts of the world, parts of the country that were overlooked.17:50.377 --> 17:59.967[SPEAKER_01]: And so, as most of the dev just talked about in the battle with Drake, he said, you know, this is music now, a lot of this music is music you listen to when you shop in that target.17:59.947 --> 18:05.676[SPEAKER_02]: I was in the grocery store the other day and they were playing, I mean, regular, big grocery store, and Ozzy Osbourne was on us with dude.18:05.696 --> 18:08.620[SPEAKER_02]: We're in different times now, like this will never, you know.18:08.741 --> 18:21.280[SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, here I, you know, the way I grew up, it wasn't my main thing, but it was in the ether, it was there, it was part of what was going on, you know, late 80s, early 90s, you know, there was, you know, everybody kind of knew something, you know,18:21.260 --> 18:39.370[SPEAKER_02]: But now it seems like you said it seems like it wrap acts are disposable like it seems like they have their they have a season and then they're on to the next thing Where is you know it the names they like you're mentioning are still talked about and a lot of those guys are still producing you know, but not stop but not work you know18:39.350 --> 18:43.877[SPEAKER_02]: And really, in your mind, is it really rest on the story that's being told?18:43.937 --> 18:49.324[SPEAKER_02]: Is it really, you know, it's like, whenever I talk to musicians, I'm like, is it the music?18:49.645 --> 18:52.669[SPEAKER_02]: Or is it the lyric that gets you started on a song?18:53.270 --> 18:56.595[SPEAKER_02]: It seems to me that hip-hop really kind of started with the story.18:57.276 --> 19:01.442[SPEAKER_02]: And you know what I mean, I'm a lay person here.19:01.422 --> 19:05.931[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I think the story, I think there's a musical story and there's a written story.19:06.793 --> 19:12.203[SPEAKER_01]: You know, hip-hop started with the DJ, and I think that's a musical story, a sonic story.19:13.145 --> 19:16.391[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the MC didn't come into a little later because you had the breakers.19:16.932 --> 19:22.924[SPEAKER_01]: You had the graffiti artist, you know, when we talk about hip-hop history, you know, getting started in New York.19:22.904 --> 19:25.889[SPEAKER_01]: But I think you can come to art in any way as long.19:25.949 --> 19:38.331[SPEAKER_01]: I think the art kind of requires you to have Something to say especially if you want to have Longjewity I see a kind of spirit between you know Tom Hanks's career and most deft career19:38.311 --> 19:49.946[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you can be an influencer and get hot on Instagram or TikTok for a season in the same way you could be a rapper or a pop artist that has a couple songs for a summer.19:50.607 --> 19:58.918[SPEAKER_01]: But that doesn't mean you're going to have longevity or respect as an artist and for me respect as an artist and contributing to19:58.898 --> 20:09.233[SPEAKER_01]: The betterment of the country, the betterment of human civilization is I think what most artists are trying to do, whether you're a male street or a most deaf.20:10.295 --> 20:13.099[SPEAKER_02]: Because you have chapters to their story.20:13.239 --> 20:17.505[SPEAKER_02]: Like you said Tom Hanks, he's had different chapters and a lot of them just where he's at in the moment.20:18.026 --> 20:22.392[SPEAKER_02]: But also where AJ is and what stories do I have to tell at that age?20:22.372 --> 20:28.278[SPEAKER_02]: With the written word with the spoken word and all that and then we look at screenplays Is there been kind of like a confluence?20:28.298 --> 20:31.020[SPEAKER_02]: You know, have you ever thought about writing a screenplay of your written screenplays?20:31.140 --> 20:32.562[SPEAKER_01]: Oh absolutely absolutely.20:32.602 --> 20:34.924[SPEAKER_01]: I just Look at I wish about the screenplay format.20:34.944 --> 20:49.037[SPEAKER_01]: I actually I wish some of these screenplays were published like novels It's sometimes a pity You know, especially being out here in this Hollywood wilderness like you read a lot of great scripts and because they haven't been produced they have no life20:49.017 --> 20:52.405[SPEAKER_01]: And that's one of the worst things about the screenplay format.20:52.645 --> 21:05.514[SPEAKER_01]: Like I've read people scripts and they'll be like, oh well, you know, if someone's so don't buy it, now it's just underneath the bed and I'm like, after that, shoot, like make the action part of it more prosy and like publish it.21:05.534 --> 21:07.178[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's so much,21:07.158 --> 21:08.441[SPEAKER_01]: maybe you can start a new genre.21:08.461 --> 21:08.861[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.21:08.902 --> 21:19.623[SPEAKER_01]: So for me, the written word is just, I mean, there's a reason why storytelling has affected all of us across culture all over the world for centuries and centuries.21:21.607 --> 21:24.553[SPEAKER_01]: So I love all formats.21:24.653 --> 21:26.938[SPEAKER_01]: I just try to approach it like I say, it was something to say.21:26.918 --> 21:32.148[SPEAKER_02]: What's really sad is when you hear about that, and I've talked to many folks who've written a story, I've written a streamplay.21:32.529 --> 21:37.217[SPEAKER_02]: It's been option to purchase, and it just gets dropped at some bottom of some stack at a studio.21:37.277 --> 21:39.141[SPEAKER_02]: Just, and it just kind of dies there.21:39.201 --> 21:42.307[SPEAKER_02]: And like, or they actually have made the project.21:42.327 --> 21:42.888[SPEAKER_02]: They shot it.21:43.189 --> 21:45.012[SPEAKER_02]: And for whatever reason, just never gets released.21:44.992 --> 22:11.505[SPEAKER_02]: But like what you're saying is the way to kind of, you know, when that scenario is, you know, bring it back to life is, I don't know if it's Quentin Tarantino or there are different people you look at their screenwriting style and that and itself is cool to look at, you know, it's very visual and specific and and the theater of your mind kind of kicks in, you know, so do you have, like if you were to set out and you're like produce it right and produce and put out a show or a movie of your own like what's,22:12.093 --> 22:16.740[SPEAKER_02]: what would be a story that you want to put out there that has been kind of humming around in your mind for a while.22:17.101 --> 22:18.283[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, shoot, go right now.22:18.303 --> 22:19.305[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just calling a pipe.22:20.867 --> 22:32.025[SPEAKER_01]: It's about two oil tycoons that meet at a strip club, and they are discussing the deal that kid22:32.005 --> 22:36.675[SPEAKER_01]: I deal that can unseat the oil industry as a whole.22:37.697 --> 22:49.120[SPEAKER_01]: It's an oil tycoon from Oklahoma and oil tycoon from Nigeria, based off to real-life billionaires, and at the end of the story, they're given a lot of22:49.100 --> 23:18.297[SPEAKER_01]: 77 weeks to delay the pipe that has been destroying the planet so for me the stories that I gravitate to that I like to write about are things that are affecting you know real people I like to write about what the truth is and I don't mean that in like an altruistic way when you watch a lot of TV shows like you know I do I'll talk about you know gun violence for example people have a23:18.428 --> 23:32.404[SPEAKER_01]: Hollywood understanding of what it's like to be in war because they've seen Rambo, they've seen all these kinds of things And then when you watch something like save in private Ryan You understand that war might not be something you want to do it.23:32.725 --> 23:40.774[SPEAKER_01]: It takes all the romance out of it Like that slide in the cross the you know the the car hood with the gun and you do a back clip23:40.754 --> 23:45.768[SPEAKER_01]: Rambo gonna get shot 55 times and be dead on minute two of the conflict.23:45.808 --> 23:56.738[SPEAKER_01]: So for me it's about talking about those You know real issues, man Especially as they affect you know black and brown and impoverished communities23:56.718 --> 24:21.730[SPEAKER_01]: you know from American abroad so those are the stories that I'm interested in because all too often those are the stories you know we're not allowed to you know to be a part of so you know for me that's what I'm focused on that's what I'll focus on as a poet that's what I'm focused on as an actor as a career character that's what I'm focused on as a writer when it comes to screenplays or many of the books that I'm thinking about putting together.24:21.845 --> 24:23.971[SPEAKER_01]: I actually lay in pipe, I'm very proud of it.24:24.472 --> 24:29.065[SPEAKER_01]: It actually just won the Climate Pitch Award at the Michelle Film Festival earlier this year.24:29.106 --> 24:33.137[SPEAKER_01]: So we got some really interesting things in the works for that project.24:40.120 --> 24:40.521[SPEAKER_02]: He's funny.24:40.561 --> 24:43.589[SPEAKER_02]: He said that about the truth of war.24:43.709 --> 24:46.756[SPEAKER_02]: What things really like that I forgot the name is not warfare.24:46.837 --> 24:48.020[SPEAKER_02]: It's it came out.24:48.140 --> 24:53.132[SPEAKER_02]: It's about a a platoon of young guys and it came out within the last year I think.24:53.333 --> 24:56.661[SPEAKER_02]: And and it's it's it's24:56.641 --> 25:00.688[SPEAKER_02]: It gets kind of gruesome, you know, it shows you what, you know, and I can't think of the name of it.25:00.728 --> 25:03.633[SPEAKER_02]: And actually it's so good that I can only get through about half of it.25:03.653 --> 25:05.537[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, I got to come back to this tomorrow.25:05.637 --> 25:07.520[SPEAKER_02]: Because it was just, it was intense.25:07.560 --> 25:12.369[SPEAKER_02]: And it was like, I don't know, maybe before anybody kind of OKs or funds or war, they need to watch that.25:12.790 --> 25:13.150[SPEAKER_01]: I watched it.25:13.170 --> 25:13.952[SPEAKER_01]: I really like.25:14.553 --> 25:14.973[SPEAKER_01]: Twelve years.25:15.574 --> 25:17.197[SPEAKER_01]: Twelve years of slave is like that.25:17.858 --> 25:21.585[SPEAKER_01]: It is an accurate depiction of what,25:21.565 --> 25:32.503[SPEAKER_01]: The 19th century was like in this country, and so it's hard for a lot of people to watch, as it should be hard for a lot of people to watch about the institution of slavery and the things that we're going on.25:33.184 --> 25:48.889[SPEAKER_01]: So if I'm approaching the story about anything, whether it's World War I, World War II, what it's like to be a police officer or being policed in a community, even a romantic comedy about relationships and things like that, I think you have obligation,25:48.869 --> 25:49.770[SPEAKER_01]: to the truth.25:49.790 --> 25:58.398[SPEAKER_01]: And Hollywood does not have a great track record when it comes to that, but also I think that's what actually makes stories timeless.25:58.738 --> 26:00.980[SPEAKER_01]: That's what makes stories resonate with people.26:01.040 --> 26:08.307[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you think about, you know, a project that really hit me always reference to this parasite, director bones, one of my favorite directors.26:09.007 --> 26:18.336[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not a movie you make in an algorithm or in a studio or, you know, it's a movie that's made by somebody26:18.316 --> 26:27.909[SPEAKER_01]: And the healthcare industry and all of that, you know, so, you know, those are, those are my artistic spirit animals.26:28.971 --> 26:35.940[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm kind of hoping, and I was talking to somebody that I've had a day about this, that my kids generation, Jen, Z, they're in their early 20s.26:36.221 --> 26:37.843[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to,26:37.823 --> 26:51.850[SPEAKER_02]: bring another, you know, independent film Renaissance, you know, because we had one like a little while back, because, you know, and I've talked to many people not, and I'm anybody listens to this show, you know, but it's like the whole comedy thing you can't.26:52.167 --> 26:59.703[SPEAKER_02]: You don't have the, the, the, all the comedies coming out that you used to have because of economics because it doesn't play as well overseas or whatever.27:00.064 --> 27:10.345[SPEAKER_02]: But that's where that you've ever just land on an independent felt like you're just trying to find something and like I spend more time just cruising around the different streamers like trying to find something.27:10.325 --> 27:13.791[SPEAKER_02]: You know, and accidentally land on something that's like independent.27:13.811 --> 27:14.673[SPEAKER_02]: It's interesting.27:14.693 --> 27:19.221[SPEAKER_02]: It's just off of what you're kind of used to and like, you know, like, I don't know how that got made.27:19.321 --> 27:24.631[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe it's somebody they always say for for actors do one for the studio do one for you, you know, kind of idea.27:25.252 --> 27:27.777[SPEAKER_02]: This is the one for you for some for some actor.27:27.797 --> 27:33.868[SPEAKER_02]: Like, and it's like, yeah, that's what I really enjoy is finding those gems that tell27:33.848 --> 27:49.782[SPEAKER_02]: a story that resonates, it feels true, even though maybe you have an experience it's like you're kind of, you get a window into somebody else's life and I think that's kind of what hip-hop was all about, you know, you get them, you know, white guy from the suburbs can listen to go to, oh, I kind of get this now and I see parallels and you know,27:49.829 --> 27:52.913[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that breeds more empathy, but I'm not going to go down that.27:52.933 --> 27:53.794[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, absolutely.27:54.074 --> 27:54.214[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.27:54.254 --> 27:55.396[SPEAKER_01]: It's not even philosophical.27:55.436 --> 27:55.796[SPEAKER_01]: Good brother.27:55.816 --> 27:56.477[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it is.27:56.517 --> 27:57.619[SPEAKER_01]: That's what art is supposed to do.27:58.139 --> 27:59.060[SPEAKER_01]: That's what art does.27:59.120 --> 28:03.306[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you can read a book about, you know, what's going on in North Korea.28:03.346 --> 28:12.256[SPEAKER_01]: You can read a book, Tony Morrison, and understand what it's like to be in a woman's shoes, extension.28:12.276 --> 28:13.298[SPEAKER_01]: That's what art is supposed to do.28:13.318 --> 28:19.245[SPEAKER_01]: It's supposed to open a window to a different, you know, area and it creates common ground28:19.225 --> 28:38.179[SPEAKER_01]: You live in poverty in West Virginia, you know, I'm saying something cold minds and then you realize, oh, I have a kind of spirit to, you know, folks that are living in Mississippi that may be black or brown or what have, so that's what art is supposed to do, that's what, you know, and when and, you know, just to piggyback off what you were saying,28:38.159 --> 28:42.008[SPEAKER_01]: So much of the big things that went boom in our culture over the last years.28:42.048 --> 28:43.211[SPEAKER_01]: I think about squid games.28:43.271 --> 28:44.293[SPEAKER_01]: I think about get out.28:44.734 --> 28:50.989[SPEAKER_01]: These were all movies that had something to say about, you know, the issues of our time.28:51.670 --> 28:56.421[SPEAKER_01]: And they just came out of the blue because they just came from an artist that was trying to say something.28:56.401 --> 29:02.728[SPEAKER_01]: You know, to me, and I think normally, you know, those are the given circumstances for producing great art.29:03.629 --> 29:14.200[SPEAKER_01]: Very, very rarely does it happen when you, I don't know, I don't want to do snow body, but you know, a candy bar, a candy bar commercial or a serial commercial is producing your movie.29:14.620 --> 29:16.122[SPEAKER_01]: Your joints might be whack.29:16.662 --> 29:18.765[SPEAKER_01]: It might be whack.29:19.245 --> 29:22.088[SPEAKER_01]: Just like if you do a hip-hop record29:22.068 --> 29:26.899[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you know, said, Tissue, I don't know, Ted, Tissue brand.29:27.019 --> 29:28.422[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it might be whack, man.29:28.442 --> 29:30.327[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, just it is what it is.29:30.347 --> 29:33.033[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's kind of that balance I think art has always struck.29:33.073 --> 29:37.663[SPEAKER_02]: Even going back to like the Renaissance and the, you know, it was financing it.29:37.643 --> 29:38.444[SPEAKER_01]: You know, right.29:38.464 --> 29:41.188[SPEAKER_02]: And some of the funny answer is like, here's your money, you go create art.29:41.208 --> 29:44.192[SPEAKER_02]: And other ones are like, well, you know, we got to sell candy bars.29:44.432 --> 29:45.093[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.29:45.173 --> 29:49.319[SPEAKER_02]: So I was curious, like, how did the cross come your way?29:49.359 --> 29:50.661[SPEAKER_02]: How did that go?29:50.681 --> 29:58.252[SPEAKER_02]: Was that something that was, like, floating around for a bit and then, you know, just kind of landed it, but how did that come together for you specifically?29:58.572 --> 29:59.013[SPEAKER_01]: Beautiful.29:59.113 --> 30:01.216[SPEAKER_01]: It's a beautiful, serendipity man.30:01.296 --> 30:05.642[SPEAKER_01]: Big shout out to my shoulder runner, Ben Watkins for,30:05.622 --> 30:28.575[SPEAKER_01]: seeing something and pushing for it, man, I was offered my role across, which is a beautiful blessing to be offered something, not to have to audition, especially when this type of character is not like it's all my real, where I just, you know, I play giraffes and then you need a giraffe, so they went to the giraffe do.30:28.555 --> 30:35.844[SPEAKER_01]: I actually auditioned for Ben for a show called Hand of God at this point, it might be like eight or nine years ago.30:37.166 --> 30:40.130[SPEAKER_02]: What was that?30:40.791 --> 30:43.494[SPEAKER_01]: There was a show on, yeah, it was a show on Amazon.30:44.896 --> 30:48.981[SPEAKER_01]: I forget to give the circumstances from it, because it was one of those auditions I had to put out on my mind.30:49.041 --> 30:51.084[SPEAKER_01]: It was like a totem for me in my career.30:51.625 --> 30:53.868[SPEAKER_01]: I remember the first audition.30:54.488 --> 30:58.073[SPEAKER_01]: There was a Carrie Barton's office in Santa Monica.30:59.234 --> 31:12.687[SPEAKER_01]: winning and I played like this storefront preacher and so you know I'm not the biggest church cat so day my homework got this thing down to the socks and I remember there was a word in the uh31:13.207 --> 31:20.434[SPEAKER_01]: In the monologue, I had to do a work called Christmas that I just didn't think that the character would use this word.31:20.775 --> 31:26.941[SPEAKER_01]: And so when I was preaching, I used everybody kind of as the congregation.31:26.961 --> 31:33.028[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember saying in the improv of the line, I looked right at Ben when I said this word, I make no sense, let me break it down for you.31:33.048 --> 31:34.409[SPEAKER_01]: He gave me this look.31:34.429 --> 31:39.835[SPEAKER_01]: And after I did a call to worship, the whole night, I got a stand-innovation and not this year, everybody started clapping all night.31:39.855 --> 31:41.256[SPEAKER_01]: And so when I left,31:41.236 --> 31:48.305[SPEAKER_01]: When I left, there was like a pug in that office and when I opened the door to leave, the pug was looking up like, what the fuck was happening in there?31:48.325 --> 31:51.629[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it was great, what was going on in there?31:51.649 --> 31:58.678[SPEAKER_01]: And so I remember I walked to my car, because he saw his part, you know, 10 blocks away so I could walk, you know, get, you know, and I was crying.31:58.718 --> 31:59.579[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you can't say it.31:59.759 --> 32:03.063[SPEAKER_01]: And I was crying on my way leaving, because I said, there's no way I'm not getting this part.32:03.083 --> 32:03.964[SPEAKER_01]: There's no way.32:04.565 --> 32:05.246[SPEAKER_01]: And guess what?32:05.306 --> 32:06.147[SPEAKER_01]: I ain't get it.32:06.127 --> 32:10.796[SPEAKER_01]: I guess what I did in the crazy way that works.32:10.916 --> 32:12.840[SPEAKER_02]: I know some things that I've come across in life.32:12.860 --> 32:14.884[SPEAKER_02]: It's like some things like I blew this thing during that way.32:14.904 --> 32:17.970[SPEAKER_02]: And I get a call like you got it and like what do you know it's crazy?32:18.030 --> 32:18.671[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't get it.32:19.192 --> 32:21.196[SPEAKER_01]: And then they call me back for another role in there.32:21.276 --> 32:21.917[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't get that.32:22.479 --> 32:23.781[SPEAKER_01]: And so32:23.913 --> 32:28.417[SPEAKER_01]: For the next 70 years, I just lived my life and was like damn, I didn't get that part.32:28.437 --> 32:29.098[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe I did this.32:29.158 --> 32:31.420[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe I did that as you kind of go in the active brain.32:31.440 --> 32:35.544[SPEAKER_01]: Fast forward to, I met Austin Film Festival with a film I directed.32:36.025 --> 32:42.030[SPEAKER_01]: I get a message from a friend and they're asking me, hey, what's got anything going on in these dates this time?32:42.150 --> 32:45.313[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, yeah, I might go through a play with going on and he said, well, we'll get back to you.32:46.555 --> 32:52.300[SPEAKER_01]: And that's when a few months later, they reached out and offered me cross32:52.280 --> 32:59.309[SPEAKER_01]: been at see me seven years ago, or eight years ago, and was like, how is this brother not working?32:59.329 --> 33:00.731[SPEAKER_01]: He did two completely characters.33:01.352 --> 33:03.595[SPEAKER_01]: It's completely different characters in the span of a week.33:04.536 --> 33:07.560[SPEAKER_01]: And guess you just had me in mind that entire time.33:07.620 --> 33:11.065[SPEAKER_01]: So she's one of those things about always,33:11.045 --> 33:25.864[SPEAKER_01]: being persistent and, and, and, you know, kind of running your own race and then things find you when they find you and the beautiful thing to me about that story is if you hear Ben Teller is the first time I've had an experience that's the exact same experience told from two different perspectives.33:26.565 --> 33:27.026[SPEAKER_01]: You feel me?33:27.286 --> 33:38.200[SPEAKER_01]: So when he told you, I, you know, there's all these things these insecurities as an actor you have as a performer where you try to say how to get it right but they had already had to offer, they had offers out.33:38.264 --> 33:38.747[SPEAKER_01]: already.33:39.371 --> 33:42.874[SPEAKER_01]: So it's one of those things to where they was like, Oh, shoot.33:43.630 --> 33:57.510[SPEAKER_01]: this guy was so good, they're making me reconsider, but to be able to do good businesses, like, oh, we can't boom and boom and boom and so like, there's all these other things you're like, hey, I had no idea that that was even, you know, going on, it's always so- That's just a thing.33:57.530 --> 34:04.219[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, yeah, when you look at like, what it takes to get a movie from the script, to get it actually out there in the world.34:04.640 --> 34:08.425[SPEAKER_02]: And then you realize what's statistically for an actor to get on a project.34:08.445 --> 34:12.591[SPEAKER_02]: You know, you really start realizing that are all these moving parts that you've got in control over.34:12.571 --> 34:17.221[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds like to me that resonated in your mind, like the same thing for him.34:17.542 --> 34:18.444[SPEAKER_02]: It stayed in this mine.34:18.925 --> 34:23.875[SPEAKER_02]: And there was something that there was a fire that was lit for both of you all, I guess.34:24.356 --> 34:24.957[SPEAKER_02]: So that's cool.34:25.078 --> 34:31.812[SPEAKER_02]: You know, when somebody can remember you and you kind of, you know, you kind of live rent for you, as they say on some way.34:31.927 --> 34:34.953[SPEAKER_01]: Also, too, you just never know what that blessing is going to get paid forward, man.34:35.874 --> 34:41.264[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, I don't, I don't believe in quitting and I firmly believe in quitting.34:41.865 --> 34:46.734[SPEAKER_01]: Some things you need to, like, I think self-awareness is very much lacking in our culture, right?34:46.935 --> 34:49.800[SPEAKER_01]: There's people trying to be singers who can't sign.34:49.780 --> 34:57.671[SPEAKER_01]: You can say it all, man, you're supposed to be a chef or you're supposed to start that janitorial firm or you're supposed to be a mathematician, etc.34:58.032 --> 35:05.843[SPEAKER_01]: So I don't think you should quit at something that you are blessed with a talent and something that you're genuinely a vocation, you're genuinely pursuing.35:06.103 --> 35:07.165[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what acting is for me.35:07.505 --> 35:14.215[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes people quit their vocation because of the world or because of they're not making the money they want to make, etc.35:14.655 --> 35:18.100[SPEAKER_01]: And I tell a lot of you, I tell a lot of you, you might just have to be broke, man.35:18.417 --> 35:28.191[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's might be what you have to do if you want to pursue the thing that you genuinely love and there's a difference between I don't believe that 100%.35:28.552 --> 35:29.233[SPEAKER_02]: It's like that thing.35:29.273 --> 35:30.054[SPEAKER_02]: I always hear it.35:30.114 --> 35:33.619[SPEAKER_02]: And I've talked to all the people dozens of dozens or hundreds, I guess.35:33.639 --> 35:35.582[SPEAKER_02]: I've talked to at this point that35:35.562 --> 35:58.110[SPEAKER_02]: they say like if you can imagine yourself doing something else then maybe acting and this thing is for you but if you're like this is the only thing this there's a fire that's you know just smoldering it's got to happen then yeah like you say maybe you can be broke for a moment and it probably will make no sense to everybody around you they're gonna think you're being foolish but i've also like you said that the whole i've watching american idol thing and like when you know it35:58.090 --> 36:08.586[SPEAKER_02]: You almost get to the point of going on, they take an advantage of people by, you know, it's like, I mean, you know, it's like, listen, it's like, yeah, you know, there's something else out there that probably, I always wondered, like, I never played an instrument.36:08.626 --> 36:10.930[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like wondering, was I ever a virtuoso?36:10.950 --> 36:14.335[SPEAKER_02]: Would I have ever been like, you know, really good at playing trumpet or something?36:14.535 --> 36:15.397[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's like that word.36:15.697 --> 36:19.022[SPEAKER_02]: Was there a talent out there that I never, the thing I never explored?36:19.082 --> 36:20.284[SPEAKER_02]: That's kind of a,36:20.264 --> 36:48.617[SPEAKER_02]: thing was kind of fun to still do your thing but sample some other stuff like an active direct you can write you can try other things and see is there something out there that really burns you up you know like it was there anything else that you know like that you're still I'm not saying working on but you you've you've through your discovery through all the work you've done are you like okay this is something I need to try this is something that it's got to get on the buffet of life you know I got I got to sample this also36:48.597 --> 36:57.309[SPEAKER_01]: something in the animal science space, man, I love animals, I love nature, I got a, you know, garden here in Los Angeles.36:58.551 --> 37:09.025[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, something in that space, I don't know how it's kind of, you know, come out, you know, whether that has to do with climate change or we're having you, but I'm a big animals nerd, always have been love dinosaurs.37:09.045 --> 37:10.467[SPEAKER_02]: Where did that start before you?37:10.607 --> 37:14.993[SPEAKER_02]: You know, because you talked about that, you talked about the entire mental thing, the animal thing.37:14.973 --> 37:40.862[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe Portland is a very big environment of place, you know, a lot of these ideals, I didn't realize we're implanted in me because I grew up in Portland until I left, you know, people were composting when I was growing up, there's parks and stuff everywhere, there's greenery everywhere people are hiking and you know, you can kind of soak up those things through osmosis, you know, when there's a woodpecker, you know, banging, you know, you know,37:40.842 --> 38:01.990[SPEAKER_01]: on a on a on a on a on a firm outside the house or evergreen so I think it was just you know the curiosity uh of a young person that was you know thanks thanks to my mom cultivated through all the programs and stuff she put me in whether that was Mesa which was math engineering science achievement I was an upper band38:01.970 --> 38:05.134[SPEAKER_01]: I was in the perspective, Jen's club, the rights of passes program.38:05.935 --> 38:19.153[SPEAKER_01]: She had me cooking, playing sports, I was doing everything and you know, I wish our education system didn't just, you know, breathe people to be a part of manufacturing or to, you know, work in an office.38:19.454 --> 38:27.184[SPEAKER_01]: So people got the opportunity to explore their harsh desires so that then, you know, I don't know.38:27.164 --> 38:34.881[SPEAKER_01]: that young brother and Alabama is the dude that's going cure cancer because he was cultivated to find that inside of himself.38:35.181 --> 38:39.551[SPEAKER_01]: I think the hardest thing about our gifts is that you know I think acting sports.38:39.931 --> 38:43.519[SPEAKER_01]: Those things are gifts in many times you can see on the outside.38:43.499 --> 39:00.124[SPEAKER_01]: right, you can see a poet where it's much harder to identify a virtuoso that's a mathematician or someone that could be a surgeon or someone that might, you know, create the next vaccine because those things are inside of the mind, inside of, you know, the heart and can't, and, you know,39:00.104 --> 39:06.474[SPEAKER_01]: LeBron James is six eight and runs, and you're like, yeah, I think this dude might have a future.39:07.455 --> 39:16.949[SPEAKER_01]: And I would love to, you know, hopefully we, you know, create those same dynamics so we can identify the next, you know, scientists or astrophysicists or marine biologists as well.39:17.490 --> 39:21.816[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I heard it's that idea that, you know, when you talk, we were talking like war.39:21.876 --> 39:28.947[SPEAKER_02]: You're talking about like all the social39:29.517 --> 39:32.803[SPEAKER_02]: someone who could have cured cancer or does something like that.39:33.484 --> 39:37.611[SPEAKER_02]: When you hear those stories, I think that's when you feels good for you when you hear those stories is somebody.39:38.092 --> 39:51.255[SPEAKER_02]: The odds are stacked against them, but they've then created this thing that they just whatever was happening internally, nobody saw that actually took them somewhere, you know, you love hear those stories, but you study societies, that's39:51.235 --> 39:54.681[SPEAKER_02]: not like you're talking about the economics before but talking about hip hop.39:55.062 --> 40:02.135[SPEAKER_02]: That's not always something that is hard-wired in our society to make for that to actually happen.40:02.155 --> 40:03.077[SPEAKER_02]: So it's good when it does.40:03.097 --> 40:08.628[SPEAKER_02]: No, you have any kids, do you have any little little folks running around or not?40:08.688 --> 40:11.773[SPEAKER_01]: No, kids, but I got a lot of nieces, my sisters was getting busy.40:12.875 --> 40:14.779[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, not a nieces in the nephew.40:14.759 --> 40:17.183[SPEAKER_02]: Well, and you're an animal guy.40:17.203 --> 40:19.187[SPEAKER_02]: I gotta ask what if you got any pets?40:19.347 --> 40:20.049[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, okay.40:20.069 --> 40:21.110[SPEAKER_01]: It's not travel too much.40:21.171 --> 40:24.156[SPEAKER_01]: So I got my stuff and I got no, right?40:24.897 --> 40:29.526[SPEAKER_01]: And I got my plant babies, you know, because they can survive, you know, while I'm, you know, on a road.40:30.547 --> 40:35.316[SPEAKER_01]: But you know, hopefully those things come, you know, a little further down the line.40:35.802 --> 40:44.109[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm the same way, but I have always been like, I think my grandmother always was, she always had plants, and I got like tropical stuff because that's supposed to be good.40:44.690 --> 40:47.733[SPEAKER_02]: Like people have tropical plants in the house, supposed to be good things.40:47.893 --> 40:48.233[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.40:48.253 --> 40:48.473[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.40:49.134 --> 40:54.319[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, so that's kind of been a thing, but I got a two-year-old golden retriever who's upstairs.40:54.359 --> 40:54.799[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.40:55.219 --> 40:55.460[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.40:55.560 --> 41:05.809[SPEAKER_02]: I'm thinking, you know, it's funny, I was in an art gallery the other day, and the artist was telling me, because I lived down here on South Padre Island in Saxon, I'm kind of a little wired into the art community down here,41:05.789 --> 41:09.053[SPEAKER_02]: And I was an artist gallery and this is big open space.41:09.133 --> 41:14.860[SPEAKER_02]: It was really cool and she said, you know, it's like kind of a warehouse thing near the near the bed near the ship channel.41:15.641 --> 41:18.885[SPEAKER_02]: And she was telling me when she went in there and it looks beautiful.41:18.946 --> 41:20.107[SPEAKER_02]: Now, but she said it was a dump.41:20.347 --> 41:23.111[SPEAKER_02]: She said, again, raccoons were like falling through the ceiling.41:23.732 --> 41:25.654[SPEAKER_02]: My initial thing was like, oh man.41:25.634 --> 41:28.157[SPEAKER_02]: poor raccoons, man, I hope they're okay.41:28.177 --> 41:34.666[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sitting there, other people would be like freaked out by it, but I'm thinking like the raccoons are really, you know, I think raccoons kind of cool.41:34.807 --> 41:36.008[SPEAKER_01]: No, I think it's all great.41:36.469 --> 41:38.672[SPEAKER_01]: I always say there's enough room for us.41:39.052 --> 41:40.314[SPEAKER_01]: There's enough room for us all.41:40.775 --> 41:50.528[SPEAKER_01]: I think we're going through a Renaissance right now as we as human beings, and especially in the Western world, are trying to understand how we can41:50.963 --> 41:52.169[SPEAKER_01]: sustain what we have.41:53.555 --> 41:58.037[SPEAKER_01]: We can't sustain polluting the oceans and killing all the raccoons and41:58.540 --> 42:01.885[SPEAKER_01]: and build in freeways through migration patterns.42:01.925 --> 42:12.880[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we're seeing it even out here with the fires, even in Australia where people are starting to reengage the indigenous communities because they have been dealing with those things for centuries and we're told.42:12.900 --> 42:14.302[SPEAKER_01]: Well, they correct the code.42:14.322 --> 42:16.005[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, they correct the code and they understood it.42:16.125 --> 42:19.330[SPEAKER_02]: I understand it at a level of like, it's symbiosis.42:19.530 --> 42:21.713[SPEAKER_02]: That's the one thing that I gather that42:21.693 --> 42:24.456[SPEAKER_02]: that those cultures understood, you know, you only take what you need.42:24.476 --> 42:29.462[SPEAKER_02]: And you hear about them like when, you know, Native Americans, they would kill a buffalo.42:29.902 --> 42:35.489[SPEAKER_02]: Every single part of that buffalo is a symbiotic relationship is not, that's the reason why, you know, kind of love them.42:35.609 --> 42:41.055[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not, you know, somebody loves hunting, good for them, but I never, the killing for the sick, killing matter.42:41.075 --> 42:46.942[SPEAKER_02]: Numbers to, but you hear, you see, the indigenous people's relationship to the land, it was a symbiosis.42:46.962 --> 42:49.084[SPEAKER_02]: So it's interesting to kind of, you know,42:49.064 --> 42:52.290[SPEAKER_02]: But you got to keep that kind of keeps you grounded like aspirationally.42:52.310 --> 42:54.734[SPEAKER_02]: You want to kind of influence the direction.42:54.794 --> 43:03.128[SPEAKER_02]: So is it like, where do you think it like, with your aspirations of, you know, your connections to, we'll just say, in general, nature and stuff?43:03.148 --> 43:05.573[SPEAKER_02]: Where's the ultimate destination you'd like to live?43:05.813 --> 43:11.663[SPEAKER_02]: You know, like, where do you think, like, back in Portland or is there somewhere in the world you only have to know, man?43:11.643 --> 43:12.364[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.43:12.864 --> 43:18.071[SPEAKER_01]: I've loved some places and obviously Portland has a very special place in my heart because I was raised there.43:18.211 --> 43:23.337[SPEAKER_01]: My family's there, but I always feel at home, you know, when I'm back in Africa, I was in South Africa.43:24.018 --> 43:25.960[SPEAKER_01]: I was in Ghana, beautiful places.43:26.361 --> 43:28.303[SPEAKER_01]: I've been in South America.43:28.363 --> 43:29.384[SPEAKER_01]: She was great there.43:29.444 --> 43:33.449[SPEAKER_01]: I was in Peru in Colombia, I was studying Spanish there.43:34.731 --> 43:40.097[SPEAKER_01]: Even Hong Kong, I love Hong Kong, Toronto is a good city, so if I move somewhere, it'll probably be43:40.077 --> 43:54.455[SPEAKER_01]: Somewhere in the National, it makes me understand, you know, my four fathers so much, you know, during the Harlem Renaissance during the Civil Rights Movement, people like James Baldwin, they left and went to France, they left and went to some of these other places.43:54.475 --> 44:04.228[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was in school, you know, I understood it more as a more of an academic and an academic sense, but there does seem to be, um, uh,44:04.208 --> 44:14.603[SPEAKER_01]: some weight that is off of you, you know, when you leave for a little bit, and I think it reeneges a lot of those brothers and sisters to be able to come back and be a part of the movements that they were a part of.44:14.663 --> 44:20.131[SPEAKER_01]: So, so yeah, probably somewhere international, man, but I have to get back to you on now.44:20.151 --> 44:26.460[SPEAKER_02]: I don't necessarily have wonder lust, but, you know, I kind of like, you know, wondering around and kind of checking out new things, or it's been great for you.44:26.480 --> 44:26.740[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.44:26.720 --> 44:54.010[SPEAKER_01]: But we'll go back to cross and be in a rider have you have you ever tried to plug in and say hey can I get into the rider's room on an empty I mean, I mean they let me you know they let me improv or change change the line here, you know here and there to try to make it more specific to the character You know and so I appreciate that collaboration, but I let the riders ride me yeah, you know I stay focused on44:54.547 --> 45:14.856[SPEAKER_01]: The metaphor of my character, the, all the different, you know, layers, and I'm trying to bring, you know, across all the different, you know, vanished place for, you know, Bobby trade, so I let them do do the right thing, and then like I said, we just collaborate on the day, why I've conversations about certain lines, but you know, I let them do that and you'll probably see me right now.45:14.876 --> 45:16.318[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm else.45:16.298 --> 45:36.851[SPEAKER_01]: As far as Bobby Trey, the character was there anybody in your life that you looked at, that's kind of like a totem that like, okay, this is who I'm channeling a little bit, or was kind of like, you know, the first time I created a character strictly from a metaphor, me and being at a conversation before season one about, you know, his motivations, he was giving me, you know, obviously we had a conversation.45:36.871 --> 45:41.158[SPEAKER_01]: And I wanted to know why in season one he was working with this, you know,45:41.138 --> 46:06.702[SPEAKER_01]: serial killer and he said that Bobby Tray was addicted to money and asked him why and he said because his family's land was stolen from him in Louisiana and you know it should be you know common knowledge but many black and brown people had their communities stolen from them via imminent domain freeways or built through people's communities.46:07.222 --> 46:08.884[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to call it red that called red lining46:08.864 --> 46:23.329[SPEAKER_01]: So red red line is a part of that it happened important actually I five there was a big black community in northeast Portland and I five was built through it and displaced all those people so with that historical context46:23.630 --> 46:28.278[SPEAKER_01]: The first thing I wrote in my notes as an actress, I said, Bobby Tray is a metaphor for capitalism.46:29.319 --> 46:32.405[SPEAKER_01]: Because of that addiction, I said, capitalism is incredibly charming.46:32.705 --> 46:35.970[SPEAKER_01]: We invite it into our homes every day, but it's also incredibly vicious.46:36.331 --> 46:41.740[SPEAKER_01]: It'll pollute the shoreline, tear down the entire rainforest, and then sell it to you for, you know,46:41.720 --> 46:43.903[SPEAKER_01]: you know 200 million dollars or whatever.46:44.824 --> 46:49.030[SPEAKER_01]: So that was the engine that I that started Bobby Tray.46:49.831 --> 46:54.116[SPEAKER_01]: And then after that, you know, we talked about where I was from, Shreefport came up.46:54.597 --> 46:59.483[SPEAKER_01]: And so Shreefport's up there in that corridor, where it's influenced by so many different places in the state.46:59.764 --> 47:03.509[SPEAKER_02]: I live like 20 years in New Orleans, but I'm from Dallas, originally.47:03.649 --> 47:07.474[SPEAKER_02]: So I know that streetports are really interesting.47:07.454 --> 47:27.792[SPEAKER_02]: people in Louisiana consider it Texas, you know, it's so far up there, but yeah, because it doesn't have a lot of the same, you know, Cajun Creole kind of route, but it's got the same I'll say I don't say corruption, but in Louisiana's got a history with, I remember my aunt told me something before I moved down to New Orleans to take a job down there back in 98, she said,47:27.772 --> 47:34.163[SPEAKER_02]: a friend of hers from New Orleans said that they don't expect their politicians to be corrupt, they demand it.47:34.304 --> 47:37.349[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so I've got to steal it out.47:38.251 --> 47:42.979[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but there's there's stories down there and some of them are just heartbreaking because yes.47:42.959 --> 47:52.096[SPEAKER_02]: You know, a lot of the black folks down there who get into politics, campaign, and their communities get, but they have no, once they're in office, they're not doing anything for the people down in the office.47:52.456 --> 48:04.258[SPEAKER_02]: So to watch that go, that there's, there's a big disconnect, because the, everything that is New Orleans, can't, the food, the music, you know, even, you know, if you look at,48:04.238 --> 48:06.502[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, gosh, Louis Armstrong, Armstrong.48:06.582 --> 48:07.644[SPEAKER_02]: I forgot the name of it.48:07.724 --> 48:11.610[SPEAKER_02]: I cannot remember the name, but we're a lot of the slaves going play music.48:12.512 --> 48:21.387[SPEAKER_02]: If you draw a direct line from that to rock and roll, you know, I just like, you know, I did my tour duty in New Orleans for 20 years.48:21.367 --> 48:34.105[SPEAKER_01]: It's a beautiful city, I shot a showdown there called Underground, we were in New Orleans and we're also in Bad Rouge for a little bit and so, you know, yeah, I learned a lot about Shreeveport.48:34.285 --> 48:38.852[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, when you talk about being in the writers room, I want to shout out season one.48:38.832 --> 48:42.898[SPEAKER_01]: There's a scene, I think it's episode three, where I'm at the warfin' deep.48:42.959 --> 48:54.096[SPEAKER_01]: Bobby trades up the warfin' DC, and there's this whole scene about Shreeveport stuff shrimp, which is a delicacy that goes back to, I believe, 1914, if I'm maybe 1920, if I'm not mistaken, absolutely.48:54.657 --> 48:59.645[SPEAKER_01]: And so this goes to show how collaboration winds up making great art.49:00.066 --> 49:06.055[SPEAKER_01]: So the scene was written originally, I think, I was supposed to be eating like49:06.288 --> 49:15.207[SPEAKER_01]: But in my research on Shreeveport and on what could have been potentially Bobby Tray's origins, I came across this delicacy Shreeveport stuff trip.49:16.229 --> 49:21.580[SPEAKER_01]: Excuse me, so I reached out to the writing team and said, hey, can Bobby Tray be?49:21.914 --> 49:51.077[SPEAKER_01]: eating this or see notice this and so they're credit two days later the entire scene was changed and it was about tree for a stuff show and so yeah and so that's how I get I'm not in the right bedroom but that's my contribution because cultural authenticity is incredibly important to me you know black people are not a monolith around the country and all too often we all sound like we from New York or something and every show that transpires49:51.057 --> 49:57.428[SPEAKER_01]: And so to pay it all the way forward, the beautiful thing is when that show came out, when the show came out, you would see comments.49:57.489 --> 50:04.441[SPEAKER_01]: I never forget there was a comment on Facebook, which I, first of all, I didn't know people were so unfaithful, but apparently there was a lot of numbers.50:04.822 --> 50:05.864[SPEAKER_01]: It does a lot of numbers.50:05.884 --> 50:07.667[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't know, but I'll never get this.50:07.787 --> 50:12.255[SPEAKER_01]: It went to show that scene when viral in Louisiana.50:12.235 --> 50:29.602[SPEAKER_01]: and there was a woman, she chronicled this on Facebook, she was like, I was cutting, you know, you have a show on in the background, and she was chopping vegetables, you know, she just listened in the cross and blah, but then when she heard a street for a stuff shrimp, she said, I almost cut my finger off, because I couldn't believe that that was being represented.50:29.762 --> 50:35.391[SPEAKER_01]: You film me, so to me, that's the full circle of that moment about how,50:35.371 --> 50:46.625[SPEAKER_01]: If you're in true collaboration, trying to tell the truth, trying to be authentic, and then you see how it pays forward, and it touches people, you know what I mean, so.50:46.945 --> 50:50.890[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I just want to think as I think tells the story of a culture to music and to dance.50:50.970 --> 50:57.899[SPEAKER_02]: It's the food, and that's why I love talking food, because I'm just like, I like to eat, you know?50:58.840 --> 50:59.961[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, me too.51:06.387 --> 51:14.019[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that will actually brings me to something I do every, you know, towards back in what I have a chat is something I call my seven questions.51:14.400 --> 51:15.802[SPEAKER_02]: And I always end up talking food.51:16.864 --> 51:17.004[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.51:17.064 --> 51:18.406[SPEAKER_02]: At least once I got, I got to.51:18.987 --> 51:23.434[SPEAKER_02]: First question I always ask is what is your favorite51:23.414 --> 51:32.776[SPEAKER_02]: comfort food that you know that thing it is lands for you if you've had a great day you've had a kind of a crummy day It's just it just warms the soul it just makes you feel same.51:32.796 --> 51:39.752[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm gonna give like a multi of a shoe my mom's Collegrees always and they're ramen bro51:39.732 --> 51:40.413[SPEAKER_01]: Ramen.51:40.693 --> 51:42.295[SPEAKER_01]: I love me some I love me some ramen.51:42.395 --> 51:49.862[SPEAKER_01]: Let me a little ramen spike get you know you get the juice all in your beard Yeah, it's Yeah, that's one thing being down here on the island.51:49.882 --> 51:50.342[SPEAKER_02]: We don't have it.51:50.503 --> 52:07.039[SPEAKER_02]: We don't have a good robin Like like or a fuck, you know that kind of you just kind of loaded up just like dump it all in there You know, you just kind of work on that bowl for a while and you know, but you're right in bed Put you right to bed absolutely got that52:07.019 --> 52:10.189[SPEAKER_02]: See, I can't do this before I have lunch, man, because I'm gonna get hung out of you.52:10.911 --> 52:17.130[SPEAKER_02]: Folks, listen to this show, it seems like I always record right around now, and I'm like, you know, I haven't had anything to eat yet, I'm like, oh, God, that sounds good.52:17.212 --> 52:19.694[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm about an hour away from where I don't know.52:20.075 --> 52:23.918[SPEAKER_02]: We're down here on South Texas coast, like we're at SpaceX launches the rocket.52:24.459 --> 52:25.500[SPEAKER_02]: It's just a lot of trouble here.52:25.520 --> 52:28.643[SPEAKER_02]: So we've got Brownsville, which is it's right on the border.52:28.923 --> 52:33.087[SPEAKER_02]: But I've got to drive at least 45 minutes to get to anywhere that's sort of like NL.52:33.767 --> 52:34.768[SPEAKER_01]: Sort of cool.52:35.249 --> 52:37.991[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, sometimes you've got to take that drive.52:38.632 --> 52:40.614[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, now you've got me, it's Friday.52:40.674 --> 52:42.575[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I've got a ramen thing happening.52:42.776 --> 52:43.696[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to blame on you.52:43.737 --> 52:44.898[SPEAKER_02]: I'm doing that drive.52:44.958 --> 52:46.459[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, I don't want to rob you.52:46.439 --> 52:53.552[SPEAKER_02]: So, now the next question, if you're going to sit down three people living or not, and it's, you're talking story for hours over coffee.52:53.572 --> 52:59.723[SPEAKER_02]: Do you and three people, who are those three people be that you think would make for a great afternoon or evening of coffee?53:00.505 --> 53:00.906[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.53:01.627 --> 53:03.009[SPEAKER_01]: I want to sit with August Wilson.53:04.873 --> 53:09.882[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sitting in Portia in Toni Morrison.53:10.503 --> 53:11.584[SPEAKER_02]: Who's the first one again?53:12.586 --> 53:13.427[SPEAKER_01]: August Wilson.53:13.867 --> 53:14.989[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, okay.53:15.009 --> 53:15.910[SPEAKER_02]: Sydney putty A.53:15.930 --> 53:21.497[SPEAKER_02]: Like that guy, you know, if eloquence was embodied in a human being, that was that was Sydney putty A. Yeah.53:21.517 --> 53:21.777[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.53:22.538 --> 53:22.899[SPEAKER_02]: It was.53:23.620 --> 53:28.726[SPEAKER_02]: The next question is to go back when you're young, got to know who's your very first celebrity crush.53:30.388 --> 53:31.530[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, man, day.53:31.570 --> 53:33.372[SPEAKER_01]: You don't give me a shovel, man.53:34.077 --> 53:36.621[SPEAKER_01]: Um, this is crazy.53:36.921 --> 53:40.186[SPEAKER_01]: Probably, um, to Pango from Boy Meas World.53:42.309 --> 53:42.890[SPEAKER_02]: You know what?53:43.370 --> 53:47.676[SPEAKER_02]: You're the second or third person who said that, you know, so to you.53:48.277 --> 53:49.078[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, who was it?53:49.098 --> 53:51.963[SPEAKER_02]: I could actually dig it up in the record to find out who was, man.53:52.083 --> 53:53.244[SPEAKER_01]: She was bad, man.53:53.505 --> 53:56.249[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's going to sound crazy too, because this is an animated character.53:56.749 --> 53:57.891[SPEAKER_01]: Um, so you probably53:57.871 --> 54:04.803[SPEAKER_01]: But if you ever seen the Goofy movie, rock fan on the Goofy movie, we would be like, growing up, I mean, this is a bad cartoon character, brother.54:05.605 --> 54:06.787[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah.54:06.807 --> 54:07.508[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.54:07.609 --> 54:10.854[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, who was it when I was, when I was young, there was a cartoon character.54:10.874 --> 54:12.397[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, Jessica Rabbit, you know?54:12.537 --> 54:12.818[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.54:13.078 --> 54:13.399[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.54:13.820 --> 54:15.643[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.54:15.623 --> 54:19.649[SPEAKER_02]: Now, if you're, if, let's say you're going to be living on an exotic island for you.54:19.669 --> 54:22.112[SPEAKER_02]: So where you want to be, somewhere nice, but you don't have streaming.54:22.453 --> 54:26.659[SPEAKER_02]: So if you listen to music, you get to bring one CD or I'll say a box set.54:27.740 --> 54:31.526[SPEAKER_02]: And you, and you, to watch a movie over and over again, just got to be just one DVD.54:31.746 --> 54:35.932[SPEAKER_02]: But with that one CD and one DVD, be you can check out all your long on that island.54:37.034 --> 54:38.676[SPEAKER_01]: The aesthetic by most deaf.54:41.080 --> 54:42.061[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, the aesthetic.54:43.363 --> 54:44.905[SPEAKER_01]: And movie.54:45.762 --> 54:48.447[SPEAKER_01]: Dang, that's tough.54:48.467 --> 54:49.589[SPEAKER_01]: One movie I'm at to go.54:49.749 --> 54:52.994[SPEAKER_01]: It would either be Lyrilire or life, probably.54:53.756 --> 54:56.601[SPEAKER_01]: Lyrilire, Lyrilire, Lyrilire, Jim Carre.54:56.781 --> 55:00.868[SPEAKER_02]: Jim Carre, Jim Carre, Jim Carre, or life Martin and Eddie.55:01.152 --> 55:09.629[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, got that with that was good, that was, uh, that, in fact, what not supposed to be like Louisiana prison if not mistaken?55:09.809 --> 55:11.513[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure, yeah, I'm not sure where it was.55:11.533 --> 55:14.579[SPEAKER_01]: I know there was on the chain game, but that movie, that movie's funny, man.55:15.280 --> 55:17.104[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, but you did, you mentioned Jim Carrey.55:17.565 --> 55:20.110[SPEAKER_02]: I've got a quick sidebar on, uh, in living color.55:20.350 --> 55:22.755[SPEAKER_02]: That was, what were the thoughts of in living color?55:22.938 --> 55:38.905[SPEAKER_01]: Oh man, it was ahead of his time in many ways, ahead of his time, you know, before we ask your pal show, before we had those things, you had confidence in the way it's family, there was something in the water that mother was drinking, and she had some, you know.55:38.885 --> 55:41.171[SPEAKER_01]: Some maybe some kind of kale or something.55:41.191 --> 55:41.933[SPEAKER_01]: Some kale juice.55:41.953 --> 55:42.555[SPEAKER_01]: They was drinking.55:42.615 --> 55:43.056[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.55:43.477 --> 55:45.082[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, man, I had it a time, man.55:45.242 --> 55:45.924[SPEAKER_01]: Titans.55:46.185 --> 55:48.852[SPEAKER_02]: I think they need to bring that show back for our era.55:48.872 --> 55:49.754[SPEAKER_02]: We're living in now.55:49.774 --> 55:53.184[SPEAKER_02]: I think that was a commentary that could be that would have been a joy card.55:53.204 --> 55:54.447[SPEAKER_02]: If we can bring them back, I think we're55:54.427 --> 55:56.871[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, George Carlin, you're underrated, man.55:57.332 --> 56:01.118[SPEAKER_01]: George Carlin was talking like, good, that good, that good talk, man.56:01.158 --> 56:02.540[SPEAKER_01]: George Carlin, man, for show.56:03.001 --> 56:04.964[SPEAKER_02]: If anybody goes back to, I'm talking early 90s.56:05.244 --> 56:06.226[SPEAKER_02]: One of his comedy shows.56:06.266 --> 56:07.387[SPEAKER_02]: You played it right now.56:07.508 --> 56:12.896[SPEAKER_02]: It'd be like, it's fresh and current to like he had, like some kind of crystal ball, you know.56:12.976 --> 56:14.479[SPEAKER_02]: He knew something was coming, you know.56:14.979 --> 56:20.468[SPEAKER_02]: Now, if you're just saying for the next question, from the time you get up in the morning to the time you get it back.56:20.600 --> 56:22.803[SPEAKER_02]: your definition of a perfect day.56:22.903 --> 56:23.845[SPEAKER_02]: What are the component parts?56:23.885 --> 56:27.430[SPEAKER_02]: What's part of that recipe for that perfect day for you?56:28.993 --> 56:37.766[SPEAKER_01]: Not giving into your lower self, the bad, you know, the things, my therapist will call it your lower nature.56:38.507 --> 56:40.870[SPEAKER_01]: Your lower nature says negative things to you and your head.56:40.911 --> 56:43.695[SPEAKER_01]: It makes you procrastinate, it makes you scroll on Instagram, that.56:44.115 --> 56:49.864[SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of distill my day down into just one foot in front of the other man.56:49.844 --> 56:59.774[SPEAKER_01]: that the moment to moment perseverance, a moment to moment, okay, I'm a Spanish homework, okay, I need to send this email, okay, I need to do this thing and then those moments stack.57:00.234 --> 57:04.618[SPEAKER_01]: So for me, it's just about staying in the moment and putting one foot in front of the other.57:05.039 --> 57:10.043[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, everything doesn't become too large and you can just keep the main thing to maintain.57:10.564 --> 57:12.266[SPEAKER_02]: So are you studying Spanish right now?57:12.686 --> 57:14.448[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, yeah.57:14.488 --> 57:18.872[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know, living down here,57:18.852 --> 57:24.569[SPEAKER_02]: I think that some of everybody down here, I'd say like 90% of the people on the island, Spanish, or Mexican.57:25.050 --> 57:25.572[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, right.57:25.893 --> 57:26.494[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like people.57:26.996 --> 57:28.019[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like people.57:28.039 --> 57:28.761[SPEAKER_01]: I don't like people.57:30.479 --> 57:33.543[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you know what I do, I try to speak it.57:34.143 --> 57:36.686[SPEAKER_02]: And I know they give me this Mexican look a bless your heart.57:37.107 --> 57:39.630[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they know what they do.57:39.650 --> 57:41.151[SPEAKER_02]: They know what I'm trying.57:42.273 --> 57:45.677[SPEAKER_02]: But it's like there's certain things I'm learning, there's certain phrases.57:45.777 --> 57:49.120[SPEAKER_02]: And that's different from Southern California to down here in South Texas.57:49.261 --> 57:52.124[SPEAKER_02]: It's, there's, even the Mexican food is a little bit different.57:52.144 --> 57:56.449[SPEAKER_02]: You know, because you remember San Diego, they got bowl-a sauce, and stuff like, you know, that is.57:56.929 --> 57:58.471[SPEAKER_02]: But again, I'm talking food.57:58.491 --> 58:00.013[SPEAKER_02]: I gotta be careful because I'm hungry.57:59.993 --> 58:07.865[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, but that's cool, you're doing that because I, you know, I, like, my, my kids went to a Spanish immersion, you know, they've got a beautiful, that's amazing.58:08.206 --> 58:16.539[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that's so good where one of the few countries where speaking, my best friends from Holland and, you know, everybody there speaks two or three languages like a matter of course.58:16.559 --> 58:18.922[SPEAKER_02]: I think that I think that's, and that's going back to empathy.58:18.982 --> 58:23.730[SPEAKER_02]: I think known as big a different language, maybe cooking a different kind of culture's food.58:23.770 --> 58:27.115[SPEAKER_02]: I think it kind of helps you understand people, but I'm not going to go.58:27.095 --> 58:29.600[SPEAKER_01]: They should go down that rabbit hole.58:29.660 --> 58:33.807[SPEAKER_01]: I think living in America is I always say learning is unlearning.58:34.208 --> 58:36.292[SPEAKER_01]: We were told a lot of things about the rest of the world.58:36.352 --> 58:40.901[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when I was in South Africa, I was meeting people just regular that speak nine languages.58:41.842 --> 58:44.347[SPEAKER_01]: It's so important.58:44.367 --> 58:49.677[SPEAKER_01]: So for me, Spanish was important to start learning because when we were in school,58:49.657 --> 58:52.721[SPEAKER_01]: it wasn't pressed upon us as something that was important.58:53.002 --> 58:56.426[SPEAKER_01]: It was this idea that English was the only tone that matter.58:57.087 --> 58:59.851[SPEAKER_01]: And so I want to be a world citizen.58:59.911 --> 59:08.322[SPEAKER_01]: So being able to speak another language, go to somebody else's home and being able to take your shoes off and do it the way they participate, the way they participate is one thing.59:08.703 --> 59:13.369[SPEAKER_01]: Also, didn't want my needs to be the only person in our family59:13.349 --> 59:21.096[SPEAKER_01]: I want to try to be able to have someone to practice with and be able to, you know, have conversations with if she wants to, so yeah.59:21.196 --> 59:22.557[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you're inspiring me here.59:22.757 --> 59:25.520[SPEAKER_02]: My spirit animal rest of Seoul is Anthony Bourdain.59:26.641 --> 59:29.163[SPEAKER_02]: His life is kind of where I wanted to be.59:29.203 --> 59:31.325[SPEAKER_02]: Just kind of be a citizen of the world and check it out.59:31.645 --> 59:43.356[SPEAKER_01]: No judgment just, you know.59:43.336 --> 01:00:00.450[SPEAKER_01]: Um, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh01:00:01.156 --> 01:00:13.213[SPEAKER_02]: Now, if you weren't doing this, and last couple of questions, if this was not available to you, de-creative thing, to be able to express yourself like this, what would be your number two is a vocation?01:00:13.853 --> 01:00:20.042[SPEAKER_01]: Should I be a scientist in some way, I'm studying astronomy, is a place I like.01:00:20.022 --> 01:00:21.684[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you made me think about James Cameron.01:00:21.844 --> 01:00:28.592[SPEAKER_01]: You know, James Cameron is a great artist, but this brother's be out here building submarines and, you know, he's developing whole technologies.01:00:28.712 --> 01:00:33.297[SPEAKER_02]: He's waiting to shoot movies waiting until technology comes into being like, and he has that much, yeah.01:00:33.658 --> 01:00:35.280[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's what I was like.01:00:35.340 --> 01:00:38.343[SPEAKER_02]: I guess, so much faith in what he does, he's going, I'm going to do a thing.01:00:38.864 --> 01:00:38.984[SPEAKER_02]: Right.01:00:39.505 --> 01:00:40.766[SPEAKER_02]: The technology's not here yet.01:00:40.806 --> 01:00:42.628[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but I'm like, if I were an artist, yeah.01:00:43.089 --> 01:00:48.375[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would be, I've always had a fascination01:00:48.794 --> 01:00:55.241[SPEAKER_01]: You know, those kinds of things have always had a fascination with the ocean with our rainforests and things like that.01:00:55.301 --> 01:01:02.328[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, I would be in the sciences in one of those fields.01:01:02.368 --> 01:01:04.470[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know to what capacity, but yeah.01:01:04.971 --> 01:01:12.979[SPEAKER_02]: When you talk to somebody who's next level on that frequency, like the next question to ask you, I asked it to Neil deGrasse Tyson, and like he's like,01:01:12.959 --> 01:01:22.597[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, he just when he's talking, he's like, I get just because I'm a big fan of Alan Watts, the philosopher, I could just sit there and listen to him for hours and listen to Neil DeGrasse, Tyson is pontificate on things going on.01:01:22.637 --> 01:01:23.539[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, do you think about that?01:01:23.980 --> 01:01:31.153[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but the question ass him, I'm going to ask you is if you had that delorean, you can go back in time, you're 16 years old.01:01:31.133 --> 01:01:43.958[SPEAKER_02]: And to where you go meet 16-year-old you for a few minutes, you get a piece of advice to give to yourself to make that moment a little bit better or maybe get yourself a little bit different trajectory What would that piece of advice be for you?01:01:44.980 --> 01:01:54.137[SPEAKER_01]: For younger you I would say star sooner Star sooner have less fear01:01:54.573 --> 01:02:00.312[SPEAKER_01]: I would give them a book called Letters to a Young Poet by Random Rear or Routk.01:02:00.773 --> 01:02:04.887[SPEAKER_01]: It talks about, you know, tunneling inside just so.01:02:05.930 --> 01:02:26.412[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I would tell them, you know, it's just, I would tell them it's a delicate balance you have to have, you have to not give a rusty about what people think, but then you do have to give a rusty about what people think, but that's to be the right people, you know what I mean, so that's the balance and I would tell them just start writing right now.01:02:26.452 --> 01:02:29.035[SPEAKER_01]: You got the juice, you got the juice boy.01:02:29.015 --> 01:02:50.247[SPEAKER_01]: Like you got the juice you don't got to be against the rapper right what you want to write just like right Was in your heart and there's a space for you if you create that space and so many times We're trying to Exist in a space that was creative for someone else You know, and that's not that was never your lane to be in and people find it like01:02:50.227 --> 01:02:54.015[SPEAKER_01]: You know, speaking of no-degrass ties, I ain't really no brother like this brother.01:02:54.075 --> 01:02:57.783[SPEAKER_01]: He, he, he smart is a whip, but he fly, he got swag.01:02:57.843 --> 01:03:00.269[SPEAKER_01]: I if you watch Cosmos, I was like, who is this brother?01:03:00.289 --> 01:03:05.300[SPEAKER_01]: That's the reason I know about that B's are democracy, because I watched Cosmos.01:03:05.340 --> 01:03:08.286[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm what, you know, I like how they, okay?01:03:08.266 --> 01:03:12.292[SPEAKER_01]: So you got to find your own path, bro, everything is fine.01:03:12.392 --> 01:03:14.896[SPEAKER_02]: You know what, I love that and kind of expand on that.01:03:14.976 --> 01:03:20.784[SPEAKER_02]: One of those things, and even as an adult I learned is like, oh, there is no template, you know, it's like that thing.01:03:20.964 --> 01:03:27.834[SPEAKER_02]: Like you don't have to, you know, because other people have, it's, you kind of go through it a little bit different, like that first Renaissance in your life, you're growing up.01:03:27.854 --> 01:03:30.178[SPEAKER_02]: You kind of realize, you know, your early 20s or whatever.01:03:30.498 --> 01:03:35.185[SPEAKER_02]: And then when you're like later on past 40 or whatever you go, you know, I can do.01:03:35.165 --> 01:03:45.182[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever the hell I want to do, I don't, you know, you start with it to put a bluntly when you get that out and give a fuck, you know, you know, that gives you all.01:03:45.202 --> 01:03:46.243[SPEAKER_01]: It does, it does.01:03:46.644 --> 01:03:53.015[SPEAKER_01]: It's a cash 22 though, man, always like I said, you got to give a foot, but you, but you can't really give a foot.01:03:53.455 --> 01:03:57.983[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of the things to where I think you just need to have a tight circle around you, because when certain people01:03:57.963 --> 01:04:19.920[SPEAKER_01]: they can help you, they can, I think that constructive criticism is important, the building up of someone, the building up of someone, you know, the building up of yourself, believing in yourself, self-awareness, you know, you gotta know, like I said, what's good at, and what you not good at, like I was never gonna be in the NBA, it's just what ain't going work for me.01:04:19.900 --> 01:04:31.361[SPEAKER_01]: You know to me, so yeah, man, just I would say just less fear and stop paying attention to these these girls, man They're going to be there.01:04:31.682 --> 01:04:33.946[SPEAKER_01]: They're going to be there.01:04:33.966 --> 01:04:36.711[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, that's it.01:04:36.691 --> 01:04:39.855[SPEAKER_02]: We can have a whole other show about it.01:04:40.155 --> 01:04:44.941[SPEAKER_02]: But the funny on that question, Neil DeGrasse Times was like, you know, I wouldn't change anything.01:04:44.981 --> 01:04:47.304[SPEAKER_02]: Why would I, you know, he kind of pontiff.01:04:47.364 --> 01:04:51.429[SPEAKER_02]: I saw where he was going with, but he's kind of like, it's kind of like where you're at.01:04:51.489 --> 01:04:57.096[SPEAKER_02]: If you're like, if you like, generally what this was, you know, you kind of, everybody's who there's a movie back in about 90.01:04:57.667 --> 01:05:08.065[SPEAKER_02]: 1990 called Mr. Destinate with Jim Ballushi, and he was like, you know, what if he got that touchdown in high school?01:05:08.345 --> 01:05:14.556[SPEAKER_02]: What if he, you know, and put him on a different trajectory, but it's like he didn't realize how much he appreciated what he had right.01:05:14.776 --> 01:05:22.830[SPEAKER_02]: And so if you take one piece out of your whole life experience, you know, it's a whole thing about time travel existing, you know,01:05:22.810 --> 01:05:28.420[SPEAKER_01]: But if I think one thing is the next thing or maybe you get it sooner, but then you can't handle it then.01:05:28.820 --> 01:05:44.948[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe maybe you go faster and then now the hit show or the hit book or the wife for you know whatever is at 25 and then you're not emotionally ready yet because you wasn't you know, season to be over the handle those things.01:05:45.008 --> 01:05:45.409[SPEAKER_01]: So I01:05:45.389 --> 01:05:55.062[SPEAKER_02]: I think a slow build, I learned this early on, a slow build is so much, you build much more solid of a foundation than when somebody who rockets up really fast.01:05:55.683 --> 01:05:56.023[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah.01:05:56.043 --> 01:05:57.245[SPEAKER_02]: There's just something sustainable.01:05:57.285 --> 01:06:04.674[SPEAKER_01]: But my first time real quick, on this thing, for anybody who listens to this, there's never too late.01:06:05.616 --> 01:06:14.367[SPEAKER_01]: This idea that is that, you know, your 40 or your 50 or you 60 or you 70 and you can't go do the thing that you wanna do,01:06:14.971 --> 01:06:24.222[SPEAKER_01]: you could go paint, you could go start a business, you could become an astrophysicist, you could become a zoologist, it just takes you breaking the chains and doing it.01:06:24.722 --> 01:06:31.250[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's the most unfortunate thing I hear now, as my friends are getting older, you know, uns and unsies.01:06:31.490 --> 01:06:33.472[SPEAKER_01]: They speak as if their life has passed on by them.01:06:33.512 --> 01:06:35.034[SPEAKER_01]: I brought you 55, man.01:06:35.054 --> 01:06:37.857[SPEAKER_01]: Like you may, you could be on this planet 50 years, man.01:06:37.837 --> 01:06:41.982[SPEAKER_01]: You can go do what I'm going to do.01:06:42.422 --> 01:06:44.104[SPEAKER_02]: It's so funny to see the exam at that spot.01:06:44.204 --> 01:06:46.246[SPEAKER_02]: Now, like, I'm going, what do I want to do?01:06:46.506 --> 01:07:00.722[SPEAKER_02]: You know, when my youngest graduate at high school, and I was like, I can leave Louisiana, because I want to be there, you know, until they were done with high school, and like, back at Southern California, I was like, I'm like, down here on this island, what I call my tropical Mayberry.01:07:00.702 --> 01:07:05.469[SPEAKER_02]: like 3,000 full-time residents, but I mean, we just had spring break, which is pure insanity.01:07:05.910 --> 01:07:06.771[SPEAKER_02]: But we got near port.01:07:06.791 --> 01:07:10.056[SPEAKER_02]: I can't go anywhere I want, but here it's kind of like gives me that head space.01:07:10.216 --> 01:07:14.803[SPEAKER_02]: You know, there's a lot of noise, you know, like you talk about like you have a garden.01:07:14.823 --> 01:07:20.091[SPEAKER_02]: I think when you're gardening, you get something, same thing when I'm on a beach, you know, you're more clear.01:07:20.131 --> 01:07:21.914[SPEAKER_02]: You kind of like, what do I want to do?01:07:22.655 --> 01:07:24.938[SPEAKER_02]: And sometimes it's it's, uh,01:07:24.918 --> 01:07:27.542[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it can change and like I'm trying some new things right now.01:07:27.562 --> 01:07:32.890[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I was like, I found when I did my show and I used to have a syndicated radio show on ABC and ABC radio.01:07:32.930 --> 01:07:36.395[SPEAKER_02]: And I can only chat with people for like five to maybe 15 minutes.01:07:36.415 --> 01:07:40.121[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, nah, I really enjoyed the story because everybody's got a story.01:07:40.141 --> 01:07:41.983[SPEAKER_02]: And I think I think that like that's what poetry.01:07:42.003 --> 01:07:43.826[SPEAKER_02]: That's what all arts do is they tell a story.01:07:43.866 --> 01:07:45.529[SPEAKER_02]: And like that's what turned me on.01:07:45.569 --> 01:07:51.077[SPEAKER_02]: Then this this genre that we're in right here, this didn't really exist back then.01:07:51.057 --> 01:07:51.839[SPEAKER_00]: the same way.01:07:51.859 --> 01:08:00.858[SPEAKER_02]: But now it so gave me the opportunity, I was like, OK, this is where I was kind of, you know, this and, you know, I do voice over and I'm like, I enjoy just spending time with my kids and my dog when I, you know, that's kind of like, you know, and it's kind of waiting for the next inspiration.01:08:00.878 --> 01:08:07.733[SPEAKER_02]: So, but my friends, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's01:08:07.713 --> 01:08:27.477[SPEAKER_02]: it's been such a pleasure and I really enjoyed spending some time with him or you know and and appreciate and but yeah definitely going to check out I'm just kind of cracking into into cross and I saw how you like I just saw I'd like you had hot sauce in your french fries01:08:27.457 --> 01:08:50.562[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm sitting there going to say this is a guy I've got to talk to about food guys Well men go have yourself a great weekend and try you know enjoy a little down time I'm gonna go make my trip to go get my ramen at some point next couple hours Well my friend I appreciate you more than you know and hopefully we'll have a chance to catch up down the line Hopefully man stay blessed stay beautiful and have a great weekend01:08:52.567 --> 01:08:53.408[SPEAKER_02]: All right, there you go.01:08:53.448 --> 01:08:54.770[SPEAKER_02]: That's Johnny Ray Gill.01:08:55.290 --> 01:08:56.912[SPEAKER_02]: Man, I enjoyed that conversation.01:08:57.413 --> 01:09:00.737[SPEAKER_02]: Just a different kind of guy in all the best ways possible.01:09:01.097 --> 01:09:02.980[SPEAKER_02]: He's kind of that Renaissance vibe.01:09:03.000 --> 01:09:11.149[SPEAKER_02]: You meet those people occasionally, and they're always great for a good cup of coffee or beer or sit down and just kind of see where they're coming from.01:09:11.510 --> 01:09:18.338[SPEAKER_02]: Get you inspired, make you want to try new things and just kind of experience life in a little bit different way.01:09:18.318 --> 01:09:30.090[SPEAKER_02]: That's kind of what I enjoy so much about doing this, having these conversations besides hanging out with you, is sharing these thoughtful, thoughtful folks who who come and share bits and pieces of who they are.01:09:30.371 --> 01:09:38.199[SPEAKER_02]: So, enjoy Johnny Ray Gill and great conversations to come, so make sure you have subscribed to Story and Craft.01:09:38.359 --> 01:09:46.047[SPEAKER_02]: Follow, if you will, make sure to like the episode, whatever podcast app you use, leave a comment, it does help people to find the show.01:09:46.027 --> 01:09:57.079[SPEAKER_02]: Also, story and craft, pod.com, the website, everything's there, past guests, everything you could possibly want to know, and also we are doing it on Substack.01:09:57.399 --> 01:10:03.246[SPEAKER_02]: Just go to storyandcraft.substack.com, really embracing the Substack vibe.01:10:03.506 --> 01:10:07.991[SPEAKER_02]: It's really cool if you, you know, of course, follow story and craft on a Substack.01:10:08.031 --> 01:10:13.697[SPEAKER_02]: You get an email every time a new episode comes out, a little notification, and we have cool things coming soon.01:10:13.937 --> 01:10:15.679[SPEAKER_02]: So I'm going to get on out of here.01:10:15.659 --> 01:10:22.968[SPEAKER_02]: And I want you to have a great rest of your day, evening morning, after noon, whatever we can, whatever you're doing.01:10:23.288 --> 01:10:30.256[SPEAKER_02]: And as I always say, and I do meet it, I really do appreciate that you make whatever I've got going on here, part of what you've got going on.01:10:30.417 --> 01:10:31.157[SPEAKER_02]: It does mean a lot.01:10:31.498 --> 01:10:35.062[SPEAKER_02]: So take it easy, treat yourself well, and I'll talk to you next time.01:10:35.363 --> 01:10:37.465[SPEAKER_02]: Right here on Story and Craft.01:10:37.445 --> 01:10:40.149[SPEAKER_00]: That's it for this episode of Story and Craft.01:10:40.349 --> 01:10:44.676[SPEAKER_00]: Join Mark next week from more conversation right here on Story and Craft.01:10:45.177 --> 01:10:49.363[SPEAKER_00]: Story and Craft is a presentation of Mark Preston Productions LLC.01:10:50.024 --> 01:10:52.327[SPEAKER_00]: Executive producer is Mark Preston.01:10:52.808 --> 01:10:55.572[SPEAKER_00]: Associate producer is Agree Holden.01:10:55.552 --> 01:10:59.098[SPEAKER_00]: Please rate and review story and craft on Apple Podcasts.01:10:59.118 --> 01:11:04.908[SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app.01:11:05.268 --> 01:11:12.500[SPEAKER_00]: You can subscribe to show updates and stay in the know, just head to storyandcraftpod.com and sign up for the newsletter.01:11:13.161 --> 01:11:13.963[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Emma Dylan.01:11:14.303 --> 01:11:18.370[SPEAKER_00]: See you next time, and remember, keep telling your story.