#203 Jalynn Steele- Broadway’s First Full Time Black Tanya!

Join Salisha on this lively and inspiring episode of The Salisha Show as we welcome Broadway star Jalynn Steele. Known for her electrifying performance as Tanya in “Mamma Mia!”, Jalynn shares her journey from small-town Texas to the national stage, the exhilaration of touring a beloved musical, and how she brings authenticity and joy to every role she plays.

We dive into:

• Her early spark for performing and the path that led her to Broadway.
• Behind-the-scenes stories from the “Mamma Mia!” tour — from iconic ABBA songs to the camaraderie of a traveling company.
• The importance of friendship, support and staying true to yourself — both onstage and off.
• What keeps her motivated, how she prepares for each show, and what her next chapter looks like.

Whether you’re a theatre fan, dream of stepping into the spotlight, or simply love hearing tales of perseverance and passion, this episode is for you. Tune in for laughter, insight and a heartfelt conversation with one of Broadway’s brightest voices.

@salishathomas @thesalishashow, www.thesalishashow.com

Many thanks to Gotham Network in NYC, TyNia Brandon for writing and laying vocals down for the updated theme song and Big Red Studios for the intro video wherever you watch the latest season of The Salisha Show!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Hello, what is up?

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Welcome to the Silicia show. I'm your host, Silicia Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

And you know, I already have this big goofy smile on my face because the person that we get to talk to today is wild.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

She's wild. And when I say that, I mean she's not like, oh gosh, what is the word? It's not she is naturally enthusiastic and charismatic, but she's um so like her spirit is so contagious.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

And it literally just instantly brightened up my whole day. So okay, let's see here.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

She teaches classes, she jumps out of planes, she's not afraid to live out loud, go on tour, be loved, wear different hairstyles, and just be. She's a dancer, a singer, and a fantastic actor.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

She is absolutely hilarious. She made her Broadway debut in The Lightning Thief, the Percy Jackson musical, and is currently starring as the first full-time black Tanya in Mamma Mia on Broadway.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Y'all please help me welcome to the stage.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Even the little intro that was on the show and everything, and you walking around in the music. I was like singing the hook, everything.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

That is beautiful. Yay! Yes, so funny. Actually, my friend Tinya Brandon, she recorded it because I I sang it and I was like, I sound like crap. And she's the one who wrote the lyric. She's in the Lion King right now. Oh, that's like you sound better than I do. Can you sing this song for me?

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Well, I love it. I love it. I was like, yes, I want to go over here. I want to go over there.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

I've seen you in the little box below.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yes. I am so in love with you. We've not really gotten to talk. I got to talk to you briefly at the stage door. Yeah, it was so much. You are such a force on stage. I'm just like, how have I not talked to you before? How have I not known who you were? You very much so command the stage at Mama Mia. How was it going for you there?

SPEAKER_03 2:58

Oh, it's it's a wonderful, magical, just beautiful experience. Um, I mean, just 20 months, 20 plus months ago when we started out, I I had no idea that it was going to be as big as it is, you know, right now. We right now the stage door is still full. It's huge. We come outside and it's like lined up. And I I thought, you know, oh, after the first week it'll die down and things like that. But people love, love, love, love, love the show. And I didn't realize like how important it was for people growing up. A lot of the the when it debuted 25 years ago, a lot of the kids that like you know, parents took them to see and everything like that are back seeing it again. You know, it's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

It really, really is your kid, I feel like almost like annoyed by how much I loved it. Like, I was like, Mama Mia, that's back already again. Like, and then and then I get there, yeah. Jalen, I knew every word. I knew I'm like, I just forgot that it was, yeah. This is one of the first um cast albums that like I grew up like eater. This is one of, and I just knew every single word. I'm like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

That that music, it gets inside and it doesn't go anywhere. It like stays with you for at least a week. Oh, and then you'll go into Target and then you'll hear it like randomly dancing queen or mama Mio over at you know at Marshall's or something like it. It's a vibe, it feels like a cliche, but then you hear it and you're like, you know, I just two days ago, grocery shopping at Trader Joe's Gimme Gimme came on, and I was like, You were following me around, and truly, and you know, I was thinking when I was watching you, I was like, I don't know if I've seen a black woman play Tanya before. Well, this is the thing at the Hollywood Bowl, way back in the day, um uh Tisha Campbell starred as Tanya in the Hollywood Bowl, but it was just that presentation, so it was that, and then in London, I think go to the West End, they had a black Tanya for a little while. I don't know if she's still there, she might be still there. I know I've seen her pictures several times.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Is Mama Mia playing on the West End right now?

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. See, they got their fingers everywhere, and then it's there's also touring, I believe, in Europe as well. I think, I think, I think.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

And you guys were the North America tour.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Yes, we're the North America tour, yeah, yeah, yeah. And like I said, starting out, we didn't know how big it was going to get, but then we like recouped in a few weeks. A few weeks, it was like it was. I want to say it was it was a little over two months, so like, yeah, it yeah, we that's a producer's dream unheard of right now. Real quick, they came out and they were like, hey, guess what? We were like, Oh, we're gonna be here a while. I mean, it's after 25 years, you know, it's one of those musicals that just it's it sticks with you and it's fun and it's silly, and right now that's what we need with all the seriousness.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

That's an understatement. Like, we need it on so many levels, right? I'm pregnant right now, I'm like 34 weeks, and I am so emotional. Thank you. Oh my gosh, I'm emotional for no reason. I'll be like, Right, right. I was having a great day yesterday, and then last night I just looked at my husband. I was like, I'm sad, no. He's like, it's okay, honey. Let's go sit on the couch. And the day that I saw Mama Mia when I got to see you and be exposed to the greatness that you are. Oh my gosh. I was sitting in the audience, like they better do that freaking mega mix. I need that mega mix today. And throughout the show, I laughed. I was not expecting to cry.

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Oh, yes, yes. It hits you here. It hits you here. It's like, wait a minute. Am I getting emotional? It is listen, it hits you here, and then you you don't expect it to. And and like especially the Christine does an amazing job with Amy for that slipping through my fingers moment where that whole I see it's it's when we look out on the the orchestra cam, because we can see the audience of the orchestra cam. We'll look out and we'll see, and we'll be like, oh my gosh, and they'll just be like snot and tears, and just like where it's such a beautiful moment, and it's this is why this is why it's it's it's sort of generational as well. This is why it has its staying powers because it hits all of these generations. We'll have uh kids, mothers, grandmothers, like all three will come out to see the show, and it's it's spectacular.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

Can we talk about the generations for a second? Because okay, okay. So there's like two casts in the Mama Mia show, right? You got these little kids and you got the grown folks.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

We got the dance dynamos and then the ensemble that so the grown folks, please help me out now. Help me out. I almost called you Tanya. Help me out, I hear it. I hear it. There was a line, yeah, but one of the grown folks, she said, as if. Am I making that up?

SPEAKER_03 8:54

Is there a line that says as if I'm trying to think when when we're where are we in the show?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

You have to put me in the show because I don't it's one of it's one of the three of you guys, it's not yours because I would have clocked that.

SPEAKER_03 9:05

So one of the ladies, I think oh, is it is it is it uh uh Lisa or Ali Lisa, the Friends? Is it the Sophie's Friends? Okay, well, this is the thing the show is set in 1999, and I think a lot of people don't realize that kind of when they see it, they think, Oh, we're taken somewhere else, and they're kind of confused. It's set in 1999, um, because that's when it first premiered, that's when it, you know, everything like that. But the show is set in 1999, and of course in 99, the kids were saying as yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Okay, so when I heard that line, I blacked out for a good three minutes because I said, wait a minute, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. Did she just say as if is she are they? They're the millennials. That's me.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

I'm the grown folk. Yes, yes, yes. Well, the it it's it's it's because the show set in 1999, and so in that that was the cool slang of the time.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

That's like literally like our generation. It just took me a second because I always thought, like, I'm the young folk. When did this happen? I was talking to Rob Marnell after the show at the stage where I was like, since when are we the grown folk?

SPEAKER_03 10:15

We are the grown folks, we are the grown folks right now.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

We are the like I just like saw myself with you guys, like I was like, Oh my goodness, when did that happen?

SPEAKER_03 10:27

Yeah, we are the grown folks, we are the grown folks now. It's it's almost scary too because anytime I'm using my phone or trying to figure out like how do I use this app, it takes me an hour to post anything on Instagram because I'm like, I have to reach to a young person and they like M Z they be doing it fast too. They're like, oh boop, and I'm like, wait, we're log in.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

So wait, can you tell me a little bit about your journey with this show? Like, didn't you? I saw that you did it somewhere in like dinner theater.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

I did, I did, I did. I actually the first time I played Tanya was in Indianapolis, Indiana, at a little place called Beef and Boards Dinner Theater, where there was a huge slab of beef on the buffet. They'd roll out this cart, which was a buffet, huge slab of beef on the end, and then boards. They actually got their name because it used to, I think they used to house the actors at the restaurant, like there. There were some some rooms upstairs. Yes, back way back when it first opened. So that's how it got its name beef and boards. Now they put you up in a in a place, they give you a car, actually. You can sleep in this booth. But yeah, they um they would have this big cart, you know, kind of where they're and uh where they are on stage, and then they would come and you would get your whole like meal and everything, go to sit down, and then they'd roll this cart away, bring the stage out, and then you do a whole show. And that was the first time I played Tanya.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Did you know that you'd be doing it on Broadway one day?

SPEAKER_03 12:13

Yeah, I was like, Oh, a girl's got a gig, let's do it. Had no idea, and that was actually before Broadway as well. That was before Percy Jackson and the lightning thief and everything. I went out to Indianapolis and and uh just you know, just happened to get this gig. And I was like, Oh, great, you know, but I was able to kind of play with Tanya at the time, yeah, you know, and kind of discover who she was, but I was also younger too. So at the time, you know, you kind of lean into some of the cliches and things like that. And now you were like listen, I'm at that age.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

I thought I the I'm like when watching you on stage, you really are breathing, you're living. Yeah, and um, I just wonder like when did if you can remember, when did you find your voice to where you felt free and safe to come on stage in a live and just tell the story and be it was oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

So I I really I feel like when I met the other girls and we kind of it was the rehearsal process, uh, we all shared uh a kind of love for the characters. Actually, um our Donna, Christine, she played Tanya at some point in the Mamma Mia world. Yeah, she played Tanya, and then uh Carly actually was was uh Rosie on the tour uh many years before as well. Um, so we all kind of had an idea previously playing these roles, but I think our connection with each other, we all had a love and respect for the work and for what we were doing, and we all wanted to create something new within us because we had never worked together, we had never, but I think it was a balance of kind of love and respect for what we were doing and not taking ourselves too seriously. We all three of us had fun, and I think and we were allowed to have fun too, with Martha and Janet and it kind of putting us together and Michael and and kind of allowing us to bring ourselves to these roles, to these characters, which is instead of playing into the cliche of who is Jackie, who is Donna, who is Rosie? We brought ourselves into the situation and we brought our friendship into the situation. So it was it was a combination of all three of those things, you know, coming together and kind of making something different and beautiful and unappotted unapologetically us, you know.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Has Tanya taught you something this round about yourself? Uh I am not learned from her. You're not Tanya.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

Tanya is I am not Tanya at all. I am so funny. Like I come out of the stage door and I've got like my New York baseball cap on, I got my like comfy onesie and sneakers. I listen, I used to do heels way back in the day, but now I like I literally have them the very last thing I put on before I posted.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

That is so funny because you are living. I'm like, I believe you that you are this bougie. She is bougie. Right, right, right. It's all you were looking the bomb too. Like you look the bomb on stage. I'm like, girl, you better work.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Listen, I am very appreciative. I I'm always very nice to the costume designers.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Listen, you she said cinch the waist here.

SPEAKER_03 16:03

Listen, yes, give me that girl. Good week. Yes, yes, yes, yes, Han. Yes, we have to, we have to, but it's it's it's it's a wonderful thing to be able to work with the crew and kind of do this. But I also like I think sometimes just me being my sunshiny self kind of helps in those situations.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

I mean, yeah, I mean, people don't realize how much of a relationship business this is on so many levels. It's like people really exactly, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 16:36

And I know I can't do half of this stuff on stage without somebody being like, okay, let's make sure this is together and this is together.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

So let me tell you back in the day before I was married, I would date the prop guy, the lighting guy, the the um oh god, listen.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

So let's go get this suitcase to the next city.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Right, exactly. I'm like, I need more room for my trunk, and then but the day we broke up, did the day mean the sound guy were no more. Guess who's mic was off? Oh the day me and letting this person guess who went out on stage in the dark? Oh don't don't dump the prop guy, you ain't gonna have nothing to say in the tour.

SPEAKER_03 17:20

Wait till the end of the contract just to be on the safe side.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Okay, so um oh my god, you're wigged in the show. Yes, yes. Have you ever been in a show where you weren't wigged?

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Let me tell you the first time I did uh Beef and Boards, Indianapolis, uh Tanya, I was not wigged, and I regretted that choice because I had to do my hair every day. It broke off, and then from those moments I learned I was like, you know what? If you want me to play a character, any character, anyhow, anywhere, I need something on my head because my hair is very precious. My hair is brown, so I always want to make sure that it is protected, I want to make sure that it can survive however many weeks or months or you know, however long, you know, I'm doing the show. I want to make sure that it's taken care of. So after that experience, I was like, and then any show I got after that, I was like, and my wig is where I had to I had to because it just it's just it's just a lot of damage having to do it day after day after day, and then I mean you can put right if you can put all kind of product and things like that, but it's just the sheer, you know, doing it every single day, it will just stress it out.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to advocate for yourself? Maybe it's about hair, maybe about something else.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Yeah, I mean, there are there were times I did. Um, I'm trying to think, uh uh for I would say, hmm, usually they're they've been pretty good these past few shows, uh, because we've also had you know, HRK and K reset, honey, they are there for us. So they make sure to advocate for us. But I'm also one of those that like on cruise ships, because I used to do cruise ships too, on cruise ships, I there wasn't a lot of advocacy, you know, the for people of color. Yes, and yes, costume and things like that. But then I got to a point where I just did it myself, and so I I think that's probably the route that I, you know, had to take, uh, because you know, different times way back then, we didn't have you know the access to someone who would fight for us and things like that. So I think in those times where I would I just kind of had to advocate for myself in a in a way of like, well, let me just go get this, and then when text time comes around, let me expand good. Yes, but I didn't, but I did do, I did, you know, I made sure that I wasn't going out on stage looking crazy, you know, that sort of situation. Um, I think when was it doing Rock of Ages a couple of times with Norwegian? I would get my own wig. I'm like, here, uh-uh, now we're gonna we're gonna use this and we're gonna keep it moving because I can't I think you're onto something like as perform.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

I uh I don't like we haven't really gotten to meet except for this moment. I'm also a performer, but like I I wonder, like we're so used to letting people dress us, and there are and there's a part of my brain that is just like whatever they want to put on me because I am the like I'm a blank canvas, but then there's another part of me that is like, but in my real life, I don't want to go out there looking you and I think there might be a balance there.

SPEAKER_03 21:04

The older I get, the more confident I can find confidence I can find to like to voice and say, Yeah, that is definitely it is it's definitely something that I I knew I had to grow into as well. Because like I, you know, for the for the most part, I'm like, if something looks kind of crazy or does something, I'm like, uh, I don't want to go out on stage looking like that, you know. Oh, and how do you say it without being afraid of losing your job? Right, exactly, exactly. So I would just I I I would just ask for forgiveness and not permission for some of that.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

I just get it done, and then they're like, she a thug, yo. You said I just do it and ask for permission later.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Okay, wait, so now you make me wonder like, because you've been in this business for a minute. Yes. Okay, it's

SPEAKER_03 22:00

lot it takes a special person to stay in a stage career a performance career for more than 10 days right yes so yes yes what i'm from the old school i'm from the old school where it's like you set your mind to it and you you have to go through with it now i feel like if if it's if it doesn't fit you if it doesn't you know uh then you can choose something else but i'm from that day where i'm like no i chose this and i'm gonna do it so is this something that you think will be in your life until you are forever forever because of that i love it so much and i i am one of those who i'm like if this is what i do this is what i love this is what i feel at home with this is why i'm here this is a part of me now so it's one of those those moments where it's like and funny enough i actually was recalling the uh moment where i felt like giving up i felt like no i need to do something else no i you know but it was almost a moment of determination of like i need to do this not just uh i think for me for the most part it it's one of those moments where it's like i have to do this for me i can't do it for anybody else because if i do it for anybody else it's not gonna be uh it's not gonna last you know what i'm saying so it's one of those moments where uh like once i realized what i had gotten myself into that that i'm like you know what no we're gonna rock this no matter what because this is what i have set out to do this is my determination this is you know and this is where i live and love like this it it performing for me um i tell this all i tell this story all the time about my father um when i was graduating high school i didn't really have a clue of like wait what am i gonna major in what am i gonna like what what oh my life wow yeah and at that time back back when i was graduating like you had to know like you there was no like we'll figure it out we're gap year where did no no no no no you didn't gap year compared for like we're spending way too much money for you to figure right kids these days are like i'm gonna take a gap year by myself no no no no you need to know so my dad he uh we were riding in the car and he was like so you can figure out what you want to do and what you love if somebody called you at 3 a.m in the morning and you were in your bed nestled down there like hey come do your job what would you have no problem getting up and doing what would you like you know get up but just for the love of it what would you do and I was like I provide dance I do you know I'm saying like that's that was the determining factor for me and so once I once I was like okay yeah this is what I do because I I was I was teetering on medicine easily oh my gosh teetering on medicine opposite direction I love my like I was a nerd I science gt classes like all of the like I was like I you know I was focused on all of those wonderful things but I was like but I really love to perform I don't know if I would you know yeah I don't know if I would want to work on somebody's surgery at three in the morning Lord oh my so literally that was the determining factor for me and once once I set that in my mind and once I I I knew I was like hey I I'm actually kind of good at it here we go let's go along let's do it so yeah that was that was it are a natural born comedian you could have also had a a career in stand up in comedy I've I thought about that I'm like if I ever see funny stage I was like I might need to do stand up I'm like I see your Netflix special yeah Jalen Steele come on bring it to fruition come on manifest here we go like let's freaking go um okay I I have some I have some rapid fire for you okay hold on wait two seconds I need to fix my wig all right we're good rapid fire away oh my gosh okay dream duet partner Broadway or pop star wait wait we're watching it can be a Broadway person or a pop star who is your dream duet partner dream duet these are always hard um yeah Audrey McDonald your go-to karaoke song uh anything by Rihanna oh first Broadway show you ever saw oh what was my first Broadway it was oh my gosh uh uh Ben Bereen um I'm I'm waiting for what's he doing waiting for I think waiting for Godot oh no no no no no no no no no no was it oh my gosh I think it was I'm gonna tell you another secret I am the worst musical theater musical theater person in the world I don't know nobody's name I don't know names of shows I don't know music songs from which horrible horrible somebody get this one I will tell you the most famous the like like the one that I that sticks with my heart and I will never ever ever forget was Fala.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

That show wish I got to see that I had just moved to the city I missed it.

SPEAKER_03 27:46

Oh my gosh that show and it was also a resurgence of his music too at that time like I had it was maybe like a full I was jamming Fela for a while and then all of a sudden I was like wait we've got a Broadway show excuse me and going to see it when it first opened I it was it was just it was such a beautiful moment for me and it was kind of a full circle moment. I think that was like the first time I had like really gotten into theater and a show and like really really getting into it. So yeah that was fail fail for me. Yeah I love that maybe I should go back and yeah um yeah I'm sure there's a slime tutorial somewhere probably right like I'm surprised I haven't gotten my hands on it already when I was in college um oh um coffee or tea before the show coffee or tea um coffee yeah there is tea it used to be tea it used to be tea i i was like hardcore green tea matcha black tea da da da but now she's she gotta get straight coffee bean um i i was gonna ask if you weren't a performer what job would you do but you said medicine medicine yeah that was i was really close i was like i was really considering obg my actually because i wanted to deliver i really wanted to deliver babies hence the reason why my dad was like it well somebody might call you at three in the morning to deliver a baby you want to do that might they will that's when those contractions start that's actually most obg why it starts right and so i was like you know what uh i'll go sing and dance and thank god thank god you bless us with that because this is this is truly your calling um i think yeah this puts me this puts me in the right frame of mind i'm sorry rapid fire and i'm slowing down these shots all over the place no give it to me get who's your favorite black woman artist who inspires you oh well i'm gonna say beyonce and i'll tell you why we're houston texas we're texas girls she's a Texas girl i'm a texas girl oh you didn't know that guy Lamar Texas I grew up which was it's down by Galveston which is close to Houston um I was about 45 minutes from Houston growing up so but yeah Texas girls we're both Texas girls and the work ethic I think is what inspires me the most she when she goes full on like rehearsing for a tour whatever like you know she goes full on and full out and I am the very same and so in order to do like a special project or something like that and I mean she's singing live she's giving you every like that that right there she really does give it to us I've never really been a part of the beehive but I respect the hustle exactly exactly I'm not a part of the beehive either I'm terrible I like I haven't been to not one concert but I know but you know what's she I know she works she works hard for for what she puts out and I'm the same way like I if there is a step that I can't get or if there's a you know something that is is within a show that I'm like having trouble with or anything like that I grind it until we get it right and that that I think that's why I think you know I would I would like to work and see you know that's that side of the grind you know and you both have like longevity in common like that is hard to do something for so long and to keep upping the ante keep improving your craft you're topping yourself at this point. That's what it is and so that's kind of how I feel I mean I'm not in competition with anybody else in the world except for myself. So it's just kind of like you know how can I make it for the people in the back for all every single person. So don't compete with the person next to you compete with yourself and make yourself a better better better person there's all right folks listen our world is set up to look like we're in competition with everybody but if you just pay actual attention you realize that there is space for everyone everyone not all want the same thing. Exactly exactly exactly but but leave it leave it up to some of these people they will pit us against each other just because and it's it's it's ridiculous a waste of energy it is it is and I'm already tired I don't need to waste my energy oh there's like nothing better there's like very few feelings that I love better more than rooting for other people it feels good yes yes I when I go see a show I'm the most annoying audience member we love to hear it we love to see I clap I let you know listen you're doing a wonderful job and I will get such looks and I don't care I don't care old Biddy in the row in front of me going like this right right turn it doing doing the old do the what are you looking at we had a show for me it's the turn it's the if the turnaround look the salty turn I can't stand people oh okay your next one your all time favorite ABBA songing me knowing you okay because it's a B side because it's a B side and because Victor does such an amazing job singing that song and night after night it's one of the favorite ones that I love to just listen to you know so yeah knowing me knowing you every every time it's like that little gospel oh my gosh okay so that was pretty much it for the rapid fire um what would you tell eight-year-old Jalen today sit down and learn piano from your mama that's what I would tell I think we might be cousins my folks are in Texas and in Arkansas and I'm listening to you and I just keep I'm like you we're probably related listen listen we're gonna look down at that family tree you know 23 and meet is so easy now I bet you we got some cousins somehow some ways somewhere the way you make my heart feel this whole time I'm just like this heifer is my cousin exactly we are related I would not hold it past us at all I'm I'm not I listen we are there we'll just we'll after this we're gonna we gotta look it up because I'm pretty sure I got I got we have folks everywhere and it's Arkansas Minnesota with some steals you know all and that listen we're we my god we'll look it up we'll look it up we'll look it up I'm pretty sure and yes I will tell her that only because I was running around doing everything else except learning how to play the piano and my mom was a piano teacher that's the crazy thing about it that's the gotcha that's the gotcha but has it held you back i didn't not read music today i just wish i would have taken the time to do that because i feel like a lot of things would have been a little bit easier as i got older um musically for me like type reading and and learning you know things like that yeah i have i have learned you know and in in time i have learned a little bit of the piano but at the same time it's just like i feel like you know it would have given me an edge up in a lot of different auditions and things like that you know had i sat down for five minutes not the five minutes that's all you had that's all you got for me for little jaylene uh uh no if it's more than five minutes I'm out oh my goodness no that's very real um and one of my final questions for you is what advice would you give young black performers or any performers but I mean black um stepping into this industry that wasn't always built for us or any marginal like stepping into an industry that's not that's not true or us succeeding in in in a great way um I would say you have to have you have to have patience and you have to love what you do. If you don't love it don't do it because I'm I've I've learned that you're only holding yourself back by trying to to I guess force things but at the same time you need somebody to fight and have that force it's it's kind of a double edged sword sort of situation but just know that you're going to have to fight know that you're going to have to have patience and know that if you love what you do it will happen.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

It will happen there's no other way around it um it's it's it's one of those where if you see something say something then and there because if you don't it will be it will microaggressions little things said here and there will they will get to you it will eat you alive but if you nip it in the bud if it just like hey now wait a minute don't let all the things add up now wait a minute yeah yeah yeah now wait a minute let's let's let's discuss this as adults because we're all adults you know what I'm saying we are adults here we're working you know this is a professional environment this is a professional thing so just make sure that you have your voice heard make sure that you know you say these things and just know it's not and changing gonna happen instantly right have a little bit of patience to know but just keep going keep dreaming keep loving what you do and don't ever let that stop you or change you so I think that's that's what I would I would definitely tell the kids y'all heard it here first Jalen Steel everybody currently starring in Mama Mia on Broadway I am so proud like even I'm like am I allowed to be proud of you I don't know I am I'm happy for you I'm excited for you I am a new fan of yours maybe a new cousin I am a fan of the Silicia show now I need to watch every single episode I need I need yes I need to do such a force thank you I appreciate it on and off the stage truly I love our moment like of just seeing because you know I spotted you before I I came out and I was signing and signing and signing I was like over there that's exactly what my brain said when I came over to you and you were like I'm Selicia I was like I knew it I knew I knew it oh my gosh I got a little starstruck when I sign you almost stop no I did I was like that's Jalen oh my gosh like what the heck I just this is her this is this is me can't be nobody but oh my gosh oh um follow you can follow Jalen at it's uh Jalen the entertainer jaylen the entertainer yes yes yes it's uh on instagram my it's it's I think it's underneath yes Jalen underscore the underscore entertainer yes she begins at the end of her name yeah yes yes yes indeed J A L Y N oh right there um thank you so much for coming on and spending time with me today of course yes yes what is today Thursday you got a show tonight it's Thursday yes I do have a show tonight yes yes I'm going right back to bed let me let you go glad we were able to do this this was really fun me too you are awesome I feel very privileged so thank you go get your rest girl coming on the Salicia show definitely thank you for having me thanks for listening to the Silicia show are you subscribed to thesilicia show.com are you following us at the Silicia Show on Instagram if not go on over there and check it out and you know what I would love I would love if you rated this podcast and if you gave us a review even if it's just one sentence thank you so much for listening to Black Hair in the Big Leagues and the Salicia Show I'm your host Salicia Thomas and I'm so happy to be on this journey with you. See you next week