Episode 3: Sweaty Eddie

In this episode, I sit down with the Drag artist, graphic designer, animator, and all-around badass SWEATY EDDIE!

Transcript

Junior Mintt: 0:00

Hello, and welcome back to the moment of truth podcast, I am beyond excited to be talking with you all. Again, this is going to be a really beautiful episode with a lot of amazing reflection because over this past week has been such a trial and tribulation. But at the end of it all is always a blessing. Because at the end of the day, I am learning something new and I am growing into a new person each day. So I'm so excited to get to share what my week has been like and know some of the wisdom that I've garnered from it. And I hope that hopefully, you'll be able to get some beautiful wisdom into your life. And I'll be able to get some of it from your comments from your, from your responses, because those bring me so much joy whenever I get to read them about how this podcast is affecting you and how it is bringing something positive into your life. Because that's all I ever really want to do. If I'm going to be truly honest, I just want to create more and more of a positive impact within my community. And the fact that I get to do this. And the fact that I get to sit here with you all is just beyond a blessing. I couldn't ask for more. And so yeah, let's dive right on in. And let's honestly begin again with a positive affirmation. Today, we're going to begin by repeat after me, every day is another opportunity for me to get to know myself more deeply. To understand how best to pursue my happiness, and what I want from my life. I do not know everything about myself. And that is the beautiful work I get to do each day with myself. I am someone worthy of getting to know. And I'm going to be the first one to get to know the flawless beauty that is me. The light that shines in me is powerful and beautiful. But it always shines inward out. It can't shine until I see it first. I hope that you felt the amount of positive energy that flows through you when you just recite those words out loud and you mean it. Because it's something very, very powerful about affirming the energy and the love and the power that is in our words. So every single time you get the opportunity, I would fully recommend you just truly speak about what you want, how you feel and what your goals are, because just putting them into the universe, you'd be surprised the impact that that has of actually truly manifesting what you want. But let's get back into the show now. And let's get into roses and thorns. And I was thinking about a lot of different things that I could cover with this. And then on Christmas Eve, my beautiful dearly loved grandmother passed away Daisy Belle Johnson. And so that has been very all encompassing, as you would probably expect in terms of emotional energy, and actual physical energy as well. And so that obviously is the rose and the thorn this week simply because there's something about death that will consistently always trigger reflection, but on top of it trigger collective reflection, I believe. So what I'm talking about here is me and my mom going down memory lane about beautiful memories with my grandmother. And it's the true Rose and the thorn mainly because when you go down memory lane, it really allows you to not only analyze the amount of growth that you have had with a person, but as well, the lack of growth. And for me, I immediately began to really think about all the depths and the nuances of my relationship with my grandmother and my relationship with my mom, and how I so badly want to break generational curses and generational traumas. But at the same time, I truly want to exemplify with the tradition in being a black woman in my family means and so I always reflect and so reflecting with my mom about stories of her growing up with my grandmother, and then as well what it was like for me to grow up with her. It was really, really touching and it makes Me, always sad whenever I think about the fact that these are things we could have been doing while my grandmother was still here. But I also think that that is what death lends us as always a lesson because we always want to look back. And we always want to remember the times with the person for good or for bad. And I think that is what death teaches us in the end, because we don't ever get to figure out what's on the other side of it until we pass away ourselves. But I think that something that is always seed sown from death, is getting to reflect getting to see how far we've come and how far we have still to go. Because immediately after the passing away of my grandmother, it was the first time in my life that I had someone in my close family passed away, I have never really experienced like, a death in my close family. And so for me, it was the first time but because of my grandmother's declining health, I've kind of mentally prepared for it for a while now. And so I realized that a large portion of what I was feeling called to do was just support my mother, because for her, she was losing her mother. And for me, as someone who had mentally prepared for this, because she had been hurt, my grandmother's house had been declining for about 10 years now. So for me, I was like, Okay, this is the thing that I know, I'm going to have to tackle one day, so mentally, just prepare yourself for it. And so it still is very emotionally upsetting for me and draining. But I had the wherewithal to still be able to be with my mom emotionally as much as I could to make sure that she was taken care of herself. And she was actually allowing herself to feel and grieve and be who she is and process at all, honestly, because I have no idea what that is like to lose your mom until I lose my mom. And so I'm just, yeah, I'm thankful for the fact that I see the wisdom that I have. And I see the love that I have in my heart. And I know that that is a that is all coming from my grandmother. Because the love that my mom shows me is only an example of the love that my grandmother showed her. And so that's how I love to think about families is because so much of the trauma, and so much of the love is just things that have been cycled within the family. Yes, we all experienced traumas outside of the family. But so much of our behavior is rooted in what happens in those moments when we are growing up with our families, that that's truly the real derivative of where most of our cyclical generational trauma comes from. And so for me, it's so important to continuously be breaking that down and thinking about that, because I love who I am. And I have to ask myself, where does that love come from? Where does all this self hatred that I have come from in terms of like things that you were taught to dislike about yourself in your household that your parents were taught to dislike about themselves in their household, and so on and so forth back into however far you go, because I always have to remember as well that as a black trans person, my lineage roots back to enslavement. And so even thinking about the fact of like, as a black person, so much of the traumas, or the hyper security around being raised as a black kid is only built out of self preservation and the fact that as a black person, we don't get second, third or fourth chances like everybody else does, we get one shot. And honestly, it could end with a bullet. And so for me, I just, I consistently have so many balls to juggle in my head when I think about family and why why our family is the way it is, and why I grew up the way I grew up and everything. And so I think that I know I'm going to be reflecting more in terms of like actually rooting things back deeply and thinking about key memories with people because it wasn't until this that I actually had the time to truly sit down and really go over like stories with my mom that were really close to her heart with her about her mom. And that was very, very beautiful for me because to find what the memories are that is so deeply held from my mom is something that's like, it's beautiful to hear. To hear of the memories that my mom holds close about her mother is the same way that I think about how my mom defended me being a queen for Halloween as a little kid as just a little trans kid wanting to be me and thinking about the times were raised her into the beautiful woman that she was going to be in order to have me and raise me into the beautiful woman that I have. It just it makes me so happy. It makes me so happy to see that. I can look back at generations of my family and be able to see strength, resilience, love support, and as well trauma but trauma that we work through We build on that we try to heal. My family is a family of people who give up their lives in order to take care of one another in order to take care of a bedridden loved one. And that is something that I'm very proud to say, as in my legacy. And I'm so thankful that my grandmother started this train in motion with Korean, her own family and being a strong, amazing, amazing black woman that like waterfalls into me being born. And me being the amazing boss as black trans woman that I am, I'm so thankful. And I guarantee that I will take these moments of life that we spend with other people lightly. And I'm already a person who if you ask anyone who knows me, I'm already the most sentimental, emotional, deep person about every single thing. Because for me, every single moment of your life is something you can learn from and that you need to be cherishing for better or worse, simply because it's adding to who you are, it's adding to your memories, and it's adding to the person that you are. So when you look back in 10 years, and you're like, Oh my god, I see how this trauma impacted my behavior, and I didn't even realize it, you can be realizing it, you just have to be processing it, in the moment actually processed things and be like, no, this is really hurting me and acknowledge it and take that in and deal with it. And so I think that that's only going to grow in me to be real, mainly because I want to try to find as much depth as much wisdom as much experience in my life that I possibly can. And if that means experiencing an experience through someone else's eyes, that's just as good for me. And that's what happens. But you sit down and you listen to you talk to people and have conversations, you were really just sharing your experiences. It was literally about to make a very weird analogy, I was gonna be like, Oh, yeah, it's like the social media of the past, you know, we're gonna tell stories and get anecdotes and get analogies and shit like that, you know. And so just don't take any moment for granted. truly appreciate the people around you, and get the opportunity to truly learn their wisdom and their walk of life in their experience, because it shows you can never walk in, because you'll only be your beautiful, badass self. And everybody else can only be their beautiful, badass selves. So we don't know what it's like to be that beautiful, badass person. But she can understand a little bit of it by talking to them, and empathizing. And so that's what I'm going to be doing even more so especially since I'm sure that Corona has taught a lot of people that lesson. But it's well on top of it, this losing someone that's close to me, and someone who I have such a varied history with. I love my grandmother's so much. And I'm going to miss her so deeply. And she was the last grandparent that I had, who was still alive. And so for me, I'm going to always cherish all the memories. And one of my favorite, favorite favorite memories of my grandmother is it was a Thanksgiving when I was like eight and she came up to where we were living in Camden, New Jersey. And it was me by two brothers, my dad, my mom and my grandmother. And so we're all in the house. My brothers are doing something, they're off playing some games or something. My dad's doing something. I was always with my mom just like under her foot, just like watching what she was doing and just trying to help out. And I never will forget, I was standing in the living room looking into the kitchen. And as I'm looking into the kitchen, I see my grandmother trying to carry this like 20 pound turkey It was a big word because we all ate. We love to eat. We're an Eton family. And so this big ass Turkey and she is trying to get it into the oven, which she is trying to base or do something but the oven door is open. So there's heat coming out. It's hot, it's humid, it's there's a turkey all of this stuff. And she is just wobbling like you know that moment where you just see somebody leaves you like I don't know how long they're gonna last. Like they do the chicken bees like their bags are just so wobbly. It looked like that real rickety table in the corner of every single Brooklyn coffee shop that one bit as soon as you sit your coffee and half of it is spilled because it's rickety, that type of wobbly. And so her knees are wobbly. And as I'm standing there I have the perfect like perfect front row view of her slowly dropping grease out the sides of it because she's so wobbly. And I will never as long as I live forget about the time she and her wildly D has made it over to the other half of the oil was out of that Turkey and she was trying not to slip on the kitchen floor because she was dropping oil a grief on the ground. It was hysterical. She didn't fall into it. But that is one of my favorite memories of her. And so rip Daisy rest in peace. I love her so much. She is So many memories. And so that is my rose and my thorn this week and I hope that me processing a little bit of that with you all as something that can help fully get you all through something you're going through in the past the future or the present. But I think it is time that we get into our interview. I'm so excited and I'm so honored to introduce not only a person who I love so much because of their performances, but also love because of who they are as a person. They are kind they are sweet and on top of it, they are extremely talented so get ready for the one in the only sweaty Eddie. I'm so excited to have you here sweaty it it is. Literally, you're like one of the first people that I knew I needed to interview when it came to creating this podcast, because I can't see your silhouette and I feel your energy. The whole package of sweaty Eddie in and out of drag is one that is not only just beautiful and spectacular, but also kind and amazingly entertaining.

Sweaty Eddie: 16:08

Like

Junior Mintt: 16:09

just being you Oh, my brain just was just like you'd be amazing on Big Brother 24 hour cameras audio. This is also the first episode that I'm recording and post election results now officially.

Sweaty Eddie: 16:24

Oh wow. Yeah. What by two hours three hours

Junior Mintt: 16:31

a day of the election be find out what happened.

Sweaty Eddie: 16:34

And then I thought then I was expecting but

Junior Mintt: 16:37

how are you doing?

Sweaty Eddie: 16:38

I'm just um, I didn't expect to feel like like a single I mean, I don't say I feel like a single emotion but it feels a little simpler than I was expecting it to feel maybe just in this moment. And it feels like there's still many things that I don't want to you know, hinge any kind of expectations on. But it's just really nice to i was i was made aware of it by my everyone yelling out their windows. And then I have a neighbor who plays the trumpet. No, or was doing that during the seven o'clock cheer early in, in quarantine. And the trumpet came back. And I was like I know something something's going on. So then I had to, you know, immediately saw barrage of

Junior Mintt: 17:30

Twitter told me first Twitter told me first got a notification of Joe Biden has been the determined winner of this election. The moment I thought I was just like, this is the most 2020 thing that this just came through Twitter for me.

Sweaty Eddie: 17:46

You seeing in your feed prior to that,

Junior Mintt: 17:48

oh, it's literally nothing but memes of like, Nevada County. The first day I was just like, Okay, this is kind of funny. The second day, I was like, Okay, I'm done. I'm tired. I'm tired. I got a chuckle again.

Sweaty Eddie: 18:08

Do the joke long enough. It gets funny again.

Junior Mintt: 18:11

By the fourth day it got campy it got today, it'd be the fifth day I'm like, Oh, okay. Okay, so this is the mood. Okay, category is we got a winner. I think that 2020 is felt like five years. What is your plan for the rest of November?

Sweaty Eddie: 18:30

Ah, I really, uh, when, when a little harder than I was expecting for October with over booking jobs and things so. So I, I'm hoping to have like a few, a few moments. To sit with my thoughts.

Junior Mintt: 18:52

This is a prime time to truly self reflect and honestly unpack some things with yourself because it's, you never get so much time to actually be with yourself without like, the expectation of getting something done. And so I just finished unpacking a lot of baggage that I had healing some childhood traumas. It's nice. It's nice

Sweaty Eddie: 19:13

to hear that.

Junior Mintt: 19:16

Well, actually, I was thinking about my childhood and I started to imagine you as a child. If I was like, I don't even know where you're from.

Sweaty Eddie: 19:25

from Massachusetts. Oh, God. Right.

Junior Mintt: 19:32

Are you are you wanting to ride outside of Boston?

Sweaty Eddie: 19:36

It's true.

Junior Mintt: 19:37

I went to Emerson in Boston,

Sweaty Eddie: 19:39

like knew that so I have a lot

Junior Mintt: 19:41

of experience with Boston, Massachusetts,

Sweaty Eddie: 19:46

like right next to Salem. Which which city? Know How familiar are you serious? Yeah, you know,

Junior Mintt: 19:55

what was that like growing up there?

Sweaty Eddie: 19:57

It's, you know, it was it was A lot of things that I have a lot of conflicting feelings about, but that are sort of hard to separate from my own personal journey, because, you know, I use this associate, I transition in a lot of capacities in my 30s. And so it's been, like a very bizarre thing to sort of, like reconcile the past and like, where I fit in, like, I haven't really been back since since that. And so if there was definitely like, a point in time where I was, like, I'm never gonna do any kind of retracing of, in that way, and like, you know, having associated with a lot of like, being deeply, deeply closeted in a lot of capacities. And like, you know, telling myself all these ideas about it, but then also being like, you know, what a lot of that is, you know, within me, and that doesn't need to define whether I can have a relationship with where I'm from or not, I don't know,

Junior Mintt: 21:02

that's so hard, but just, it's so hard in a really good way. Cuz I grew up like, until the age of 10, in southern New Jersey, in Camden, New Jersey. And then we move to DC when my dad left. And it was like one of those things where I had, I can't even really say, I've been back to DC since like, I've started to, like, truly understand my transness. And like, I've gone back and seen like my mom and everything, but that's like, not really going back there. And like, yeah, re experiencing my, like school and everything like that. And I was recently just thinking about the fact that for like so many trans people that I know, there's always a moment of like, well, I'm good. I'm just gonna like, this is all amazing right here right now, I don't need to go back. Close. And it's like, as of recently, I've even been like thinking where like if my high school did a like high school reunion, like, of course not this year, with Corona. Right. Like later years, if they had a reunion, I would love to go back as my beautiful trail itself, it starts on everybody, I would of course, be the flyest person that every trans person who goes back is like the flyest, motherfucker, because you truly understand yourself. Most of the trans people that I know we left where it was because people weren't understanding of identity other than their own. And so for me, when I go back, I imagine most of the people will not have changed that much in terms of, and I'm just only gonna be even flyer that imaginable. Because all of y'all are still repressed, y'all are still not open with your own queerness. I'm now so excited about the idea and the prospect of going back because I'm so confident and loving of who I am now.

Sweaty Eddie: 22:54

And I love that I like I definitely, very recently starting to come into that energy, but I didn't go to my 10 year college reunion. I was like, a, like a few only a few months into like being out and like, like, you know, transitioning in the way that that looked for me and like I just did not have, like, I was like, I have faith that I will get to that place where I will be emanating some sense of like, even if people can't really like validate, or see where I'm at that they'll at least be like, oh, wow, okay, well, you seem like you're, you're in a new place. I was not in that place yet. And,

Junior Mintt: 23:37

oh, trust I was, I was

Sweaty Eddie: 23:41

you just filled me with a lot of optimism that that might one day be.

Junior Mintt: 23:46

It might happen. And if it doesn't, that's still just as great. It really is just about truly finding power in your own journey. You know what is right for you. And if your journey means not going back, and closing that chapter for good and put a lock on that motherfucking journal and never open it and ever again, that is beautiful, standing it and be proud of it because you did what you needed to do in order to be the healthiest, best version of you. If that means going back that night is absolutely fucking amazing, too. And you could go and start on everybody. If not, you're still starting from a distance. The way we're starting that's

Sweaty Eddie: 24:28

on how long it was gonna take it would have been maybe harder. And just

Junior Mintt: 24:37

how was it transitioning in your third? Oh my god,

Sweaty Eddie: 24:39

very strange.

Junior Mintt: 24:43

I could only imagine because if, if, of course everybody's transition feels strange just because like transition before, but like Yeah.

Sweaty Eddie: 24:53

It's sort of, it's sort of this like, thing where like at this point in I'm like, seeing how circular everything has been and like, look back it feel more like more aligned with my like, how I was as like a young person, like a young young person. But, but like the the journey of how to like, figure out how to be an adult in the world, like, took me to some that both like aligned within like a really strange way but also felt so far less abstractly I guess I like up until the moment that I went to the center had like an like, open like trans mask meeting and I saw I saw like the most like flamboyant femme, like trans boy like came up to me and told me that he liked my shirt. And he was just like, wearing like a crop top and like I could see it he had top surgery and I was just like, I was like, they like Paley you do. And like, I think up until that moment, I like had just always had such confusion around my relationship to femininity. And even in even into the moments of being like, Oh, I don't have to, I don't have to be a woman anymore. I don't have to do this anymore. And like, and then immediately going into I guess I have to throw away all the things that I like, like makeup and like all these clothes that I let you know and serve really just like I don't know, just like a lot of a lot of confusion around how to like reconcile things that had felt euphoric and like, grounding to me, that were also so far away from how I understood myself and like, so I'm moved to New York for a job. When I was 22. The my first time working in an office, that was like very like, what year late? President

Junior Mintt: 27:12

you were actually very, very, very useful. Okay, so we're talking about you transitioning in your 30s. And I was like, wait, I just turned

Sweaty Eddie: 27:27

30. Alert, I will be 35 and it's been two months.

Junior Mintt: 27:31

Congratulations. That is an achievement of the transperson You better work?

Sweaty Eddie: 27:36

Yeah, I you know, I have a relationship to time. I think also, because, like, it's also like, the more that I go into, like medically transitioning like, the younger people read me, which is also like, I've just like is like a cosmic, I suppose. But I'm like I'm giving I feel like I've been given some extra time to like, figure out how to get my shit.

Junior Mintt: 28:05

You're saying you're working in an office for the first time? 2008 Yeah, so

Sweaty Eddie: 28:09

I I'm a job in. Yeah, in children's television. Yeah, I was like, so I was like, so I was like, it was just like, a moment of like, I have to figure out how to dress like an adult, I have to figure out how to, like, present myself as an adult. And to me, like, that was like a very gendered thing. of like, I was like, What do women wear? Like, I mean, previously, I had just like, I would be walking around wearing like, hot pants and like tights and like, you know, definitely, like trying to make sense of myself as like a woman, but it was like, not in a like, I don't know, the jobs that I had before that did not care how I dressed and so like,

Junior Mintt: 28:48

you could mix and match. You could literally

Sweaty Eddie: 28:50

Yeah, I was like, I was definitely doing something like I was just sort of like, like, whatever, like young slut energy. Like weirdo fam was sort of like my gender. Like, very much like, everyone treats me like I'm a little girl I like looked a lot younger than I was like, I had long hair. Like I I like was definitely felt like very confused about how to interact with like, straight men and like, just like how people treated me receive or whatever. And so I just gonna, like wear bright colors and do whatever I don't know. And like, and then so but then, but like trying to figure out how to any kind of confidence as like an adult that was gonna present as someone like a serious person. Yeah, was like a total confusing moment for me. And I was like, I was like, Oh, I can wear a pencil skirt. And I can get a button down shirt. And I can tuck it in were a little belt. And I was like this This works. In retrospect, it was really like it was a little it was a little All? Yes. And just like the thick belt, I don't even know,

Junior Mintt: 30:05

I got very lucky in terms of falling into doing theater. And like, I originally was gonna go into international relations. And I want to know, I wanted to, like try to study and become like,

Sweaty Eddie: 30:19

amazing. Oh,

Junior Mintt: 30:21

that would have been cute, but like, not really because

Sweaty Eddie: 30:24

and you don't know what's gonna transpire,

Junior Mintt: 30:26

oh, I'm never gonna do that I'm never I was gonna go into international relations, because I was like, I know, I can travel because I just knew I didn't want to be where I was because I knew I couldn't be my full self. I was doing theater in high school. And then the person who was a great above me went to Emerson and came back and was like, God, you could do this literally, you can easily get in. And until then, I never even thought theater was a career. And I like looked into and I was like, that seems great. And it's like other LGBTQ friendly school. That'll be fun. And so I like applied got in, immediately made me having to figure out what to wear is like an adult who was going into spaces, like what I was going to do, it made it so much easier because for theater, it's just like, it's such a you just wear what you need to do to get done because

Sweaty Eddie: 31:16

the tech out

Junior Mintt: 31:17

exactly. You got to wear close toed shoes. You gotta wait, you got to wear some jeans. wear a shirt, like it's like, Okay, great, awesome. I don't even have to worry about this. And then by the time I started to, like, get into the design aspect of it, and I was like the designer walking in. It was the first time that it clicked to me that being an artist allowed me the leeway to do whatever I wanted in this society and present however I wanted

Sweaty Eddie: 31:45

and that people praise you for it factly I'm learning that this year like I just learned that just like have like getting these jobs where I don't feel like I have to be like toned it down is like such a new thing for me and like it's it feels like it can this be real but like I'm like working I'm used to being like viewed as an employee and like now I'm like hi like con i mean contract work you know is is is it few and far between and not predictable in any kind of way but like, but like being someone that they hire for you to be an artist is like such a such a different dynamic and I was like Why? I didn't know this was where people were people always like I was like reading the employee handbook being like how do I access

Junior Mintt: 32:33

that part also, like I stumbled into the best like okay, I need a job to just like get some money like you know, like the artist is like this is my hustle that I do in order to like just pay my rent and I worked at it escape the room and oh my god I was I caught it of course I was motherfucking say honestly that shut the house down what I tell I got so many people there who just have a good time if there's one thing I could make a motherfucker do is have a good time. You in cake boys like I cannot tell you the artistry that you all produce. Like it is next level entertainment, but also next level inclusion. And on top of it next level. What's the word? It's um empowerment next level empowerment.

Sweaty Eddie: 33:34

Oh my god.

Junior Mintt: 33:36

It feels like what drag reality competition shows tried to do in terms of like, okay, we're gonna empower these people but like also fight you Richard Akaka like you two together elevate your cast and you allow them to shine but as well be a whole team in a cast. I really want to know how did you how did you to come up with cake boys? Where did Where did the inception begin but the inception of the conception

Sweaty Eddie: 34:04

oh my goodness Thank you so well I just like i well i like competitions really stressed me out and it's just like I know that I know that I know. I know that there are people who can like hold all of the things and be able to compartmentalize and still like you know see the beauty in what what that brings but just like I really it's just like not what I want to see from like artists and like weird people like i don't i don't i don't i don't want to see competition. I don't want to give anyone a restriction I want like a complete open ended thing and like what people you know, fill that with but um but yeah it's Richard and muscles Monte and then scenario and Gemma Nemesis and you know a bunch of a bunch of people are sort of our recurring, recurring

Junior Mintt: 35:03

recurring cash?

Sweaty Eddie: 35:04

Yeah, I definitely like, you know, it sort of came out of wanting more space for kings, but also, I think more space for like a really specific like vibe of drag art, comedy entertainment, that sort of didn't I then definitely, like more like narrative or like character based but also like had space for people to really just sort of like, bring whatever, whatever they bring to drag that doesn't fit into like, you know, a normal lip sync number, I guess.

Junior Mintt: 35:51

The binary of drag?

Sweaty Eddie: 35:53

Yeah. But like, which is, you know, not not to, to shave their head. Yeah, I know exactly what it was, it was sort of like, more like to create like a more of a narrative show environment. That was sort of more of a not sketch show, although I guess we like I kind of accidentally made a horror movie and

Junior Mintt: 36:18

we just really loved it, you accidentally beta horror movie,

Sweaty Eddie: 36:22

if I, if I had known that the scope of what we were going for, I think I think we would have shut it down before doing it. So I'm glad that we, I don't know if that's funny thing about drag where it's like, and you probably feel this from like, having a more like formal theatre background is like, you kind of go into it expecting to cut corners. And that's kind of, like the nature of it. And so it allows you to be more like free and also more ambitious, in, in what you're doing. And then your audience is sort of like, has like, kind of like a winking understanding of, of what it's supposed to be so that people aren't disappointed at, like, you know, questionable production values, or, like, you know, just sort of going with you on it sort of like somewhere in between, like that, like improv space where, you know, you don't have any production value, but it's like, all well, just the acting, but like you, you know, you're bringing, like suggestive bits of things and, and you can kind of just sort of, like, follow along with what it's going to be but like, then doing that in like a, you know, for a twitch show, it's like, okay, we're straight up making a movie now.

Junior Mintt: 37:30

Like, twitch shows, I've seen compilation performances I've seen, like, everything possible, but yours is, it's like it's a multimedia. It's multi genre, your animations, the stories you tell the recordings, the visuals, the story, cuz it's like some of those interludes of like, you add Richard, I'm like, this isn't of itself is a number. This is like, it's just a transit. It's like beyond that. I want you to give such a well rounded production, but on top of it, a production that always has a message behind it. And even whether that message is like have a fucking good time, or like, find your own fucking business, or like, whatever it may be. It's always it's always necessary and it's always powerful. How long have you been doing drag for?

Sweaty Eddie: 38:29

I think three years and I've been doing drag for two weeks longer than I've been transitioned which is to say that when I came out to people they were like, wait so is sweaty Eddie, is that you is that

Junior Mintt: 38:52

a lot of things came together by transit. It's the first time

Sweaty Eddie: 38:56

I know I was just it just may be that like, I I like always say like, I wish that like straight people and sis people thought about their gender more and like and being trans or genderqueer you know, anywhere in deviating from the norm is like pathologized to such a degree when it's like no we're all by gender like we all have a relationship to it we all have euphoria from thing and like some of those things might be more like in line with the like general population but like like knowing yourself and really like like being able to reconcile the like the the implications of those things or where you have pain around that or where you feel like you're holding yourself back from like living fully like that's for everybody. I'm just like the fact that kids are getting to actually self determine at such a young age because children already know who they are. children know who they are. It's just whether you choose to listen well and the like the internal have like, like something about me is wrong happens like so. So subconsciously and like, ya know, in disclosure hearing the the father talk about being so proud that the idea of like, his kid like really like having, like such a sense of themselves and that that being like, something to be proud of was like, I like I was like this this is like almost like upsetting to hear because it's so different from like any I mean, I don't know, it's it's hard for me to like, even, you know, try and think about what being in touch with that would have even looked like for for me because I feel like, you know, having grown up in the time and place when I did like, I like I didn't want to be gay, like Never mind like trait like that wasn't a fit, like Never mind being like, Oh, I'm a feminine man like that was just was not like, but I like that, you know, like that was not a thing. Like it was not a thing. And so it's like I I'm very much like I could I could have seen a path where I don't know, for me before, before I came out to myself, like it like came out of like years of you know, moments of feeling like euphoric and like empowered, being a woman, but also like, just like a lot of like deep pain in disconnect. And like, I think I could have easily sort of stayed in this like place of like, resentment and fear and like not, I just felt like very like, like, I wanted something to make sense to me. And nothing ever made sense to me. And like, there was just a point where I had to kind of give in to that and be like, the universe not gonna give me an explanation. I just have to go with my impulse on what is making me not feel like I want to die. Like and I just I'm glad that I gave up my need to try and understand things. I know, they waited, they went along with so much other growth and so many other things that have allowed me to like move through the world in a different way that like, I'm just glad I got there when I did least when I did better late than ever. But

Junior Mintt: 42:20

and that's the key. That's why it really the longer in life, it takes someone to transition, the more I'm happy to hear it. Because I know that for me, the moment I realized I was trans, it felt like 20 odd years of weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. Yeah. And it makes me so happy that at no matter what age someone transitions, because no matter what that weight is only building it. You deserve to have it off your shoulders. Yeah. And it's one of those things that the only person who can do it is you the only person who could lift that weight is you and

Sweaty Eddie: 43:00

self hate is really detrimental to everybody. In

Junior Mintt: 43:08

Exactly. And that's why it really it touches my heart when I see the older the older people get, the more willing they are to transition because I'm like yes, yeah, I'm so happy to see that people are unlearning what society has pumped into us which is like the horrible toxic sis hat way of thinking.

Sweaty Eddie: 43:31

And that no,

Junior Mintt: 43:33

I love you sweating. You have a beautiful rest of your day. You deserve nothing.

Sweaty Eddie: 43:37

I hope you do as well. I can't I can't wait to see you hopefully in person some time in the near future.

Junior Mintt: 43:43

Yes, very soon. Hopefully. Well, don't get me the first round of Acts.

Sweaty Eddie: 43:47

Right? Yeah, we'll

Junior Mintt: 43:48

see how it did me the like, fourth or fifth round, straight. Try it out first. Honestly, oh boy, sending so much love. Okay, sweaty. Love you. That interview literally made my entire week when I tell you talking to sweaty really gave me some nuggets of wisdom and some nuggets of truth that really, honestly gave me something really deep and beautiful to ponder on. That is always what I hope to get out of this show. And so I hope that some of you or hopefully all of you got something out of that, that you can take and channel forward honestly for the rest of your life because the universe will not be giving us any answers, but the least that we can do is grow to ask some new questions. Okay. And so with that, I am going to take us into our final segment of this episode. It is a moment to look back. Okay. And I just want to take you down memory lane and remind you that over the course of this year, a lot of people have finally been awakened to the fact that their voice is important that their voice takes up space method. Voice Matters, and that their voice has the power to impact people in their community, their neighbors and their loved ones. And so what I want to do is have you look back over this year, at all of the different opportunities that you had every single day to affect somebody's life for the better. And every single opportunity, I want you to think about whether you took that opportunity or not. And I want you to know that next year is no different than this year, you have the same unlimited amount of opportunities to affect somebody's life, you have the same amount of opportunities to do something good for a black trans person in your community. Damn, you could do something good for the entire black trans community. Okay. So when I tell you, your voice is important, I mean it because every single day, I see more and more people who realize that by making a simple choice, they can make somebody else sleep better at night, they can make sure that someone has a roof over their head that someone has another meal to eat. And so I just want to remind you of your power, never forget that you are powerful. Never let anybody make you think that you aren't powerful. And never make someone believe that you don't have the opportunity to make a difference in someone's life and that life could as well be your own. So, on that note, what you'd have a beautiful rest of your day. I want you to remember you're powerful and that you have a you have an obligation to use your voice. You have an obligation not only to yourself, but you have an obligation to every single other person who can't use theirs. Okay? Never forget. Have a beautiful rest of your day and stay blessed moisturized and sanitized. And I will see you at the next moment of truth episode. Peace and love.