We Did It… Season 1 Finale!

 Season 1 wraps with Lester and Leslie looking back at the wild ride that built Les Talk — from janky livestream setups to full‑circle glow‑ups. Between laughter and light dragging, they unpack how their friendship has stretched, shifted, and leveled up through every chaotic recording session. Lester spills about DC Black Pride prep, Leslie confesses to overbooking her life like a true theater kid, and together they reflect on what it means to grow without growing apart. It’s real, it’s ridiculous, it’s heartfelt — the perfect finale for a season that started with vibes and turned into a whole movement. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:34

Hey, Leslie. Mister. How you doing?

SPEAKER_03 0:40

I'm doing good. I'm pretty great. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 0:43

I'm doing really well, actually. I am getting ready to go out of town for Washington, D.C. Black Pride. By the time this recording hits the live, well, the stream or whatever, it'll be past the time. But as we are streaming live right now, we're streaming live right now, y'all, on Instagram, on Facebook, and YouTube. So there will be records, visual records.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Oh, yeah. Visual records.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

Yeah. People have been saying for a while, at least a friend of mine that listened to the podcast, like, oh, you guys should go record live or whatever. So we are doing that now, and we're it and it's a janky setup. I'm just going to tell you ahead of time. However, it is effective. It's doing the thing. I Googled what platform, what's the easiest platform to navigate that allows us to stream multiple places. And once in, I found the place. I'm not going to say it. Well, it's on the live, but I'm not going to say it on this recording because we need sponsorship. Because this shit is not cheap. So if you want, if you want me to say your name, send me a check. Send us a check, excuse me. This is a duo uh effort.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

But no, you need to send it to him because I don't know. You handle it.

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Put it in my name and I'll uh disperse. Yeah, you do it. But no, setting up for this was quite a task. But, anyways, DC Pride literally just got the email last week and been working on that, trying to set up for that and the set up performance tracks and sending pictures and bios, revising bios every time. So it was a really quick turnaround. So that's why those of you who are watching live can see I've got some braids and I haven't had braids in my hair for quite some time. It's been at least a year, at least a year or two. Okay. It's been actually more than a year.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

You didn't have your hair braided for uh the show you did in New York?

SPEAKER_02 3:00

No. And that and specifically because that character was supposed to be like this, it's a time piece. It's like slavery time, then going into like the Reconstruction era, like I was thinking Afro, and also at the time I was also doing a Al Green tribute. So it just the the character I was playing and also the concert I was throwing, and that the uh Afro felt more appropriate. So yeah, it's been it's been more than two years since I've had braids, and I was kind of scared if we're gonna talk about us being in our age group. I was because I don't know if you've noticed, I have gray, I have this gray hair that's been on the left side of my beard. The grays are starting to come in, and I'm just I'm sad about it because it's a sign of the times.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Because, duh, you can look at that like driver's license.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Oh you can, but how many times you gotta pull that out? Well, I pull it out more now than ever, because anyways. You don't have to pull it out. I'm getting older. I'm getting older, and that's just a reminder that. But I was scared that I would look like one of those, like, and I talk about these kind of people all the time. Well, I used to talk about these kinds of people all the time, those older guys that can't seem to let go of their youth. So, like you'll usually see them, especially here in Chicago in certain sides of the city where they're wearing like these jumpsuits and shit like that, like jogging outfits.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

And then okay, that reminds me of jeans that yeah. Is that the same one where the like the fraternity brothers, the old fraternity brothers or something?

SPEAKER_02 4:49

That that seems like it's on the same road, but not the same lane. Because I feel like Drewski, when you say a fraternity, that r registered to me as something else. I'm more so talk about like I especially see these kind of guys on the west side of Chicago, where if you look at them from the back, you see the little jogging suits, or maybe like a snapback or something like that. You like, oh, this one of them young cats. And then once you look them in the face, you see the grays and the wrinkled skin, and you're just like, oh, you can't let go of your prime time. So you are you're you're dressing young. And maybe you're trying to attract young. I'm not necessarily trying to attract young. I just I want to try you, but I was scared that I would look like someone who is trying to, I don't know, recapture their youth. But it they actually look decent because I don't have as many grays.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

So I don't think I I feel like that type of braiding would be timeless anyway. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

So like if you were like in comp completely gray.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

People my age group, they norm uh and they usually start going for their dread journey.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

My good friend Crystal, she normally she when we first met, she initially was like a backup dancer of mine because she was dating a friend of mine in high school. And I'm able to tell this story cleanly because I told her that her her mother's 75th birthday that she recently had. I don't know if I told you. We got a lot of catching up to do. We haven't talked in like months.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

I mean, it was like well, it feels like months.

SPEAKER_02 6:30

Yeah, it feels like months because we normally talk all the time.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

Yeah, in the between.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

But you've been super busy, I've been super busy. But a couple weekends ago, my friend Crystal, she put together, I think it was the 75th birthday party for her mother. And she, of course, invited me and my family to attend. I sung happy birthday for her. She had this really nice banquet hall on like, what's that? Elmwood Park is like North Avenue and like maybe Irving kind of area. So like Elmwood Park kind of that's what's sticking out in my head.

SPEAKER_05 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

West West suburbs, northwest northwest suburbs.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

Chicago, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

So she ran another hall, and it was really nice. But so they did this thing where they wanted every table to say something about her mom, like how they met in one of her mom's friends that was sitting at our table had to get up to use the bathroom. And of course, by the time they got to our table, she was still in the restroom. So I got up because I was the only one closest to the family at that table, aside from this other older woman. And I just spoke, and part of my speech was talking about like how I met Crystal, and that was that was the joke. Like, it was a joke, it was one of those things where it was like it's a joke, but it's true. When I met her, I had just finished recording my first song with a guy I went to grammar school with, and he was dating Crystal. They went to Proviso West, and he was just like, Yeah, because we were talking, we were getting ready to perform it somewhere. And I was like, ooh, it'd be cool if we had backup dances. Oh, you know, my girl dances. And then her girl, you know, and then she got this cousin that danced too. So my very first, like, I guess, official background dances aside from my cousins, because technically my first background dances, I think, were my cousins, was Crystal and her cousin, and that's how we met.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

You get somebody else's right.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

That's it's a family affair. It's a it's a that's what I love about like our community. That's what we do, like you know, come together with stuff and and and help each other out. That's how we build and make cool things. And make cool things. So, yeah, that's how we met. And um, I told that antidote at the at the thing, but yeah, so that was one of the many things that have happened, and uh without me getting too deep. What's been going on with you? Yeah, that's side.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

Well, I I guess right now I'm I am doing something that I have done literally almost almost 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Tenured.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Which I should not have I should have learned from the first time that I've done something like this with back to back. I don't have the same knees anymore.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Have you gone through your bother with sour sap?

SPEAKER_03 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

It's not working. It didn't work when you when you took it.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

What so when I when I took sour salt, when I was drinking that like like as dosed or as required, and I did it daily, my sleep got a little bit like a lot better. You know, okay. It really opened up my I guess I don't know what they call this, like my my head, my my eyes or whatever. It it kind of lifted me a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 10:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

And I did get like really good sleep and when I was when I was on that. But as far as like my joints or whatever, I don't know. I think I need to take it a little bit longer instead of just instead of just one bottle of it. Cause I'm just like you, I I see the the beginning results of something, and that means it needs to be continued.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

And I didn't continue it. You know what that I didn't mind the taste.

SPEAKER_03 10:38

I know it was bitter, but I didn't mind it.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

I'm still chasing mine when I take it. And and technically it's my only sec this is my second bottle because I did stop taking it for a while myself. But what you mentioned just reminds me that our bodies are different because for me, when I took it, I felt it instantaneously. And now that I've gotten back on it, like it's been a lot easier for me to get up those freaking stairs. And I mean, I am working now a lot more to on a stronger dosage of my GLP, but also the sour sap is is help, but anyways, so my knees aching knees, 20 years. Where are we talking about the stage? What when you say he said that you've been doing this for 20 years, you're talking about being on the stage.

SPEAKER_03 11:29

No, I'm talking about the last time I did back to backs like an idiot.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

Oh, like scheduling for back to back stuff.

SPEAKER_03 11:35

Yeah, thinking, oh, well, I do have time for this. Like, not every open spot on the calendar or on my calendar should be used up for other things.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

That is true. And we talked about that with our goals, our vision board. Complete opposite. We need to self-reset. But also, too, I feel like a part of being an adult and also being an adult with like goals, ambitions, and things that you want to do. It requires work. You have to work for it. And that means, damn it, sometimes you're gonna have to go to a live stream right after work and hurry up and go to uh freaking was it Sam's Ribs, uh not Sam's Ribs. Uh you have to hurry up and go to Hecky's ribs after you get your haircut and scarf down a few rib tips and then come back home and just rig up something so that you can keep your promises to social media with the live.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

Disturb his ribs.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

You disturbed my dinner, but I'm to tell you the truth though, I am I'm man, it feels like it's been forever, and I'm so glad that we are recording again.

SPEAKER_03 12:54

Yeah, the whole goal was to take a break, but my dumbassery just like just packed it all in.

SPEAKER_02 13:00

Not dumbastery.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

But yeah, well, when when I I know that I'm not, I'm and I know that when I look back on this, just like I did like when I look back on what I did 20 years ago when I gave it back to back, it's like, yeah, once everything is over, as long as I can say I did my best and gave like a really good focused attempt at chime and like do my best whenever I'm a shell of a person because of lack of sleep, then I'll be I'm proud, I can be proud of it, the work because I wanted to do it.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

That's right. That's exactly that's what it's about. But and I don't want to harp it too much, but I do want to say it one more time. You work for what you want. When you are an adult and you say, I want to travel, I want to create more, I want to do this. You have to put it down on paper, and you have got to plan it out and you got to execute. Even if it's a little bit, you chip in a little bit away, a little bit at a time. That's what separates you from everybody else who just kind of pays lip service. Anyways, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

Yeah, so yeah, it's like I told you I got a new job. Yes. And that requires me to congratulations, by the way. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

And it's just like the next thing is to have a rig where I could press buttons and either clap or laugh or whatever, anyway, like a fake audience. That that'd be for season two.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

That would be so that would be another goal. And yeah, I would like to sleep a little bit before we work on another thing. Yeah, so I got a new job. And it's it's one of those things where it's like, okay, they got like good benefits and all other things. I'm like, yes, I want to be able to go to the doctor.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Can we say it that you're working for the good? No. We can't say that the G. Not what not what the actual job is, but what sector in the of job market that you're in. No, no, shit. Just know it's a good job. You know what? If y'all can piece it together, if y'all lease, if y'all listen to prior episodes, because we have talked about these cal anyways. Go ahead. You got you a good job. You got you a good job.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Yeah, yeah. And I'll be able I'll be able to go to the doctor.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Whatever that means.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

I'll be able to go to the doctor. And I'll I'll be able to like even get glasses, which is crazy. And you know, so I'm just really happy about about that. Um, so obviously, yeah, but then in the transition, like I agreed to train the person who was gonna be taking over my other job, you know, and so in that it's like I go to like I leave at five, or I wake up at five o'clock to leave at six to check in, like at work because like I said, early shift. And then like right after work, I'll be in the car for an hour to just get back home to sit at my desk to like do the other job, to like transition out of that. And then right at like six o'clock, I gotta leave to go to rehearsal at seven. Yeah, and then sometimes you the tragedy.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

At least you got that early shift at the new job.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

Yeah, but here's the thing though, because of that schedule shift, I thought I could just do everything. You know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Trying to be super woman.

SPEAKER_03 16:37

Well, no, not trying to be super woman, just saying like I can. And it's just like now the back to back, like at at first it wasn't such a big deal. Yeah, it was a big change because like my days are earlier, but now they're longer because if I'm up at five, yeah, I'm up at five and then I don't get home until like late, like around eleven kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

And so like it's just it's a lot. It's a lot, it's a lot, yeah. And you know, obviously this will be it's it's just for it's just for a short period of time.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Right.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

But you know the transition. The transition and it's just it's a lot, it's a lot of just realizing, okay, now I'm trying to get into the groove of something different. Right. And that requires me to go through some kind of discomfort. Right. And I mean, that's I guess that's growth. I mean, it but now I'm at a point where I where I'm understanding what balance is, and this is not it.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Well, okay, so two what you just mentioned reminded me of a conversation we had, which I won't talk about on here in detail after oh yeah. What do you need a a sh a sugar uh pickup?

SPEAKER_05 17:57

Oh, man, they loaded me up as always.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

This what you just mentioned reminded me of what you had mentioned after I came out to see you at one of your plays, and you would talk about like how the setup was a little different than what you have normally done when it comes to uh plays, you know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_04 18:19

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Okay. So because I don't want to go any further than that, but in terms of the the thing, but what it because that's like it's it's kind of like that because so I'll so I'll just say it.

SPEAKER_03 18:32

So the show that I'm touring with has uh it's double cast.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

And so therefore Which is really cool, I'm gonna say from an audience perspective who went and saw it twice. You saw that was so cool to me to see an interpretation of the same thing from two different anyways, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

One, yes, you see what I'm saying? But you s but the story was still clear and it was still the same, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

There you go. So it's just like that being in a show where I have my way of portraying this character, but then the main cast that I am with, we we all like have a main way of we telling the show. And then because it's double cast, because of like scheduling, I guess, yeah, we have to be able to tell a story that matches the other our new cast's energy. And it with because if it's like all weird or whatever, it's like it's it feels like it's like a funky puzzle.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

You know what I'm saying? And like you even seeing it with different people, same story, and you know it like, oh, you know, like and it and not and not just and not just the way the actors are telling the story and acting together. That's a flex too. So like the the next thing about the show is that being in different venues and different spaces, and that's a flex too, because we have to adjust the spaces comes because some spaces only have one entrance, some have two, some have more options, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 20:06

But like But that's kind of typical of a traveling show, right? Because I was a part of a traveling show too for temporarily and if you don't bring your own set, right? That's what makes you guys a little bit more unique. But then again, I'm not as much of a theater officiato or whatever the word is where you say a connoisseur as some I I feel like there's probably other companies that function the same way that you guys do. I feel like you know what I'm saying? Yeah, you like finding different, like working in different venues where the setup isn't necessarily always the same, so you gotta kind of sketch it out ahead of time, plan it. How do you make those impactful impactful moments continue to be impactful regardless of what venue or space you're in? And from someone who has seen this twice, that was so cool to me to be able to still get those hits and those like the audible effects along with the the light when it's on, when it's off, that kind of stuff. Like all of those little details create the story that you as an audience member see, and to be able to pick that up and do it in this space, do it in that space, do it in this space, and and have it work. That's just shout out to the violet surprise theater company. Y'all are so dope. Anyways, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Well, yeah, it's all part about like being able to go through that type of discomfort, being pushed out of the comfort zone, I should say, each time. It's like a way to build something within myself. And so like in order to get stronger, you have to put yourself through some kind of risk. Trigger. Just like working out. You know what I'm saying? You don't go to the gym and you have like results in mind, like say, like you want to get your arms cut up or something like that. Then you got to put in the work at the gym to get your arms cut up. And then not only do you have to do the gym thing, there's a nutrition thing. That's right. Yeah, there's other factors. There's like your your health. You know what I'm saying? So in order to get optimal results, you have to go, you have to do things that you didn't normally do.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

There's our special word again. Optimal, optimal life, optimal, optimal health benefits, optimal. Yes, anyways, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 22:39

Yes, optimal ways of doing things, optimal operation. So, like I I'm I'm understanding, you know, okay, these things, yeah, I'm not used to, you know, leaving the house so much.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Working from home has spoiled a lot of us.

SPEAKER_03 23:00

I wouldn't say spoiled to me.

SPEAKER_02 23:02

Well, I won't say you're you're right. Spoil is probably not the right word, but it's it's a new way of work that we've gotten adapted to now that since COVID has come and gone, having to go back to kind of like traveling to a space and working there versus working at home, rolling out of bed, literally. Like I yeah. Anyways, yeah, I I I understand.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

Well, my thing is that I'm not putting myself in danger every day to get to work. As in traffic.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

I don't like driving like that.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

And then I forgot what traffic even looks like. It's been so long since I've had to report to a building. Oh. Well, I'll take that back. When I did the show, I had to drive all the way to the south side for rehearsals, and that was a bitch. But for a shower.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Yeah. And then not only that, the cost of gas and the wear and tear on my vehicle. Like all I'm thinking about is more things I gotta pay for.

SPEAKER_02 24:10

Look at that adulting you.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

It is it because it's because it's little driving me a little baddie, a little crazy. It's freaking nuts. Like I'm like freaking neurotic all the time because I'm just like, oh my God. I I am in a like a two-ton little vehicle on the road going about like 60 miles an hour, shooting down with other people going like 70, 80, 90 miles an hour. That would be me. In different kinds of cars and like different places to go.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

Yeah. You even drive responsibly, even when you're under stress. I yeah, I am the 70, 80 mile per hour driver. I'm trying to get somewhere and I'm running behind. And then I get mad at people that aren't on the same page as me on the road. And that's what I gotta worry about. I run across somebody like you and be like, get out of my way.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

What I have to worry about every time that I can get on the road, I gotta worry about those different kinds of drivers, and then the ones who don't want to know speed limit. And then, and then at certain times, like coming home or going somewhere else that I need to be, I'm not only I'm not only on the car with them, on the road with them, I'm on the road with like hundreds of other thousands of people on the street to trying to get out of work and go home too.

SPEAKER_04 25:28

Right.

SPEAKER_03 25:29

So then it takes me twice and a half as long to get back, and that's how long I'm in the freaking car. And I yeah, and then see, it's not it's not just the travel part and not being on the road with all those people, but the likelihood of getting into accidents because there's always one. That's right. So I'm worrying about these things. Somebody hitting me, like Han Kong, I just look, I don't understand what you're going. I'm going speedly my name in my lane, and I'm just going where I need to go. So the the distance is in the heat. It's like I'm just like, this is the things where I'm thinking about other things that I gotta pay for, like liability. I gotta worry about other people driving. I gotta worry about so like it's just a it's stressful, and I don't like it that much. But like I didn't have to worry about those things when I was working from home.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

Well, also, too, you are getting paid more too, right?

SPEAKER_03 26:27

At this I have like I can see the doctor now.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

That's huge in and of itself. And for those who may not realize what she's talking about, because either you are an adult and you're privileged enough to be someone's dependent where they you're able to get on their insurance or something like that. Those of us who are above the age of 28, unless Trump reverted it back to like 21 or whatever it was before Obama made it 28, but if you're over the age of 28, you are responsible for your life at that point, according to the government. So even if you do live at home or whatever the case may be, you're responsible for your own insurance. And one of the fucked up things, and I'll say this comfortably, one of the very fucked up things about how this country is run and why universal health care is so important, is because you can be put in a position where you don't have health insurance because you make too much money at a job that doesn't give you enough money to pay for your own health insurance, or even like sometimes you're kind of struggling, not saying this is with my friend, but I there's other people that I know on this in that have been in this situation. You make too much money to get help, but you don't make enough money to survive, but you don't make enough money to freaking survive. And that's what the problem is. This is why we advocate for things like universal health care, because there's no reason why when we work in an economy where higher and fire is at will, correct? Right? These companies, as we see right now, all these major layoffs, people being replaced by AI, things like that, there's no reason why something like your health, luckily, my friend, doesn't have, as far as I know, any detrimental health situations. But if you've got as far as you know, right, as far as I know, but or that, or, or that I would put out there because I wouldn't want to put out her personal business, but I could speak for me and people that I know for myself and people that I know, if I lost my health care, I would have the potential to die because I have conditions where I need medication. I am on a GOP right now for weight loss and things like that that is covered through my medication. And like there was a time when I was unemployed. I talked about this on the show. And had I, if I people would ask me, like, okay, won't you like work at McDonald's or something like that? There's actually a situation where you cannot work in the where you can't work if the job does not fit the certain type of money that you're supposed to be making, because there is this middle space that the ple people like the Republican Party makes that middle space even grander, grander, where you you fucked if you do, you fucked if you don't. Like, oh, I could get the job at McDonald's, they are hiring, but they don't pay enough for me to get industry like health insurance, marketplace health insurance, and then I would end up making up, making two, just just enough money past the poverty line where I would not qualify for Medicare. So then where am I gonna get my medication from if I'm working at a McDonald's that does not offer me health benefits, and it just gives me enough money to cover my rent and a hamburger every two weeks, and I still need my medication. I still need to see my doctor.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

And you need to drive to work and you have to worry about not getting into an accident because that's gonna cost you something.

SPEAKER_02 30:22

These are the things that some of these I'm I'm I'm trying not to get emotional because I'm I feel myself getting teed up right now, getting upset thinking about it, because I have had just recently this week on my Facebook. I know you've been busy, you have not been on social media a lot, and when you get some downtime after in the in a couple weeks, you could catch up. But this week, it's been a lot going on in government and policy. And I've been talking about it on my Facebook, and there's one person who I consider very close to me who has helped me in my career, but she is a stark MAGA Republican. And I haven't heard too much of her from her recently in terms of rebuttal, but there's a lot of weird things that this administration is doing right now. And I've been getting into these debates, and it's been frustrating because this is someone who I thought had a heart for those on the fringes, as you would say, right? And it takes these conversations for me to realize damn, you really don't have a heart, or you don't understand these things, these sit these scenarios where someone can get screwed out of living, really, like health should be a human right in the greatest country in the world. There's no reason why someone who is diabetic with high blood pressure, someone that, you know, is facing cancer or whatever serious health condition that they face, is they're scared about their life because it's tied to their job in a job market that is so freaking fragile. That is concerning. Policy needs to change that. And if you don't understand what the value of universal health care, that's a privilege that you have, but it detaches you from reality because there's too many people out there who are under those conditions where they could lose their life based off of what kind of job and work that they have, because they'll end up making too much money to get help and not enough money to survive. Then what do you suppose and then and then when they decide, okay, I'm making too much money to work, so let me not work, then all of a sudden they're a welfare case. But you don't understand the system that for some people they they have to make those kind of decisions. And then we're just talking about people on an individual level. It's other is with single mothers out here with children that have to consider not just themselves and their own health, but then also their children. And the same scenario applies. This country is fucked up right now. So I digress. Damn it, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

We're frustrated. And it's just been, I guess there's external factors that things that we can't do about right now. Like, like right, right, like now, right now. You know what I'm saying? They feel a little out of our control. And it's well, it feels a little out of my control.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Uh no, out of our control, because that's the thing. These things are tied to policy, and when you have an administration that can give a fuck less about those on the fringes, those so right, like I said about Texas in one of our earlier episodes, where it's like that's the you can't be unemployed living in Texas because they give no aid. They don't want people that don't work living in their state, and they and how they sh how that shows up is in policy.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

Yeah. So but what I'm saying, like on a general level, is just that they like how we've been doing.

SPEAKER_02 34:05

Yeah. So bring me back. Reel me back in.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

Let's do this way a little bit. Um, turning the sail. Please. So like I'm saying lately we've been going through some things that have been like stressful. There's external factors, there's things that we didn't choose and things that will all of us pretty much. And then things well, the ones who are didn't ask for this. And then the ones and then the the the frustration that's internal, like what I'm going through is because I chose it.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

You you're saying that you chose it.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

Yes. I chose the work, like as far as like getting a new job and choosing to transition the other person in because of the fact that I appreciated my older job. And then the theater, oh yeah, my schedule, my back to backs, you know.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

R right. You're saying your busyness is a choice. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 35:01

But see, think about it like there's like a different kind of frustration that we've been going through since we have been back. So, like, in in a in a way that we are just catching up right now. That's why I was so excited to see you, is because like this is finally a period for rest for me.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

And you know Which is on our vision board.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Yeah, but I haven't taken it because like I'm thinking that maybe it should be a grander time or a bigger time or like a you know I'm saying, like I should hold on, hold off on using that space because maybe I don't get one anymore. You know, but it's not just it shouldn't just be to that one free space that I had put on a piece of paper. I should take more of those because that's a way of creating balance.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:50

And I haven't been doing that lately because of the schedule and the things that I chose. So I I felt that at the same time, like I'm letting some things go in order to fill fulfill those types of like decisions that I made. And it's kind of like a guilt thing, maybe.

SPEAKER_04 36:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

But because like now, but usually we would be in like I would well, I would be in something that I sleep in whenever we come to record together.

SPEAKER_04 36:22

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Or just something, or if I can't like make fun work or whatever, but like today it just feels like an overcorrection for me, just because of the fact that like not just because we're going we're I'm I'm in front of people who are gonna be watching this at any moment now, and it's weird.

SPEAKER_02 36:41

But I'm not gonna tell you how many people are in the chat.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

How many?

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Three.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

Oh, hello. Well, that's just what you're doing.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Hello, everybody in the room.

SPEAKER_03 36:52

Yeah, thanks for showing up. That's cool. Watching me like ramble. I mean, this is how we talk. Yes, and obviously the segues and bringing back that's not the natural thing, but because of respecting of the the format here or trying to have some kind of format.

SPEAKER_04 37:10

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 37:10

Yeah, just gotta circle back or turn the sail, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Come on, turn the sail.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Or just make everything try to make sense. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

This is our last episode of the season to kind of reel into why we're here, why we're live. 30, 41 minutes later. We are here today.

SPEAKER_03 37:40

This is why we and like usually we talk first for a while. I didn't show up as early as I should have.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

Well, probably didn't you anticipate it, but that's yeah, you showed a fine for me because I was still in here working on stuff, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

So like usually we talk, we we talk it out. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like we talk about things, like the we go on rant, we reel it in, we try to figure it out, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

It's kind of like like a release so that we're more chill whenever we're and then we cut the the the mics on, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

Yeah, so you're getting the raw, unedited, you yeah, you're getting the raw right now. But I wanted to reel it in in a way where we're where we talk about like the purpose that we're here is to kind of recap. We've done 19 great episodes, this whole thing. This whole idea started off as just an idea during COVID. I want to say I remember we had a get together where it was me, my ex, you, your ex, and then our ex-friend and his wife at the house during COVID. And I feel like maybe it was either then or around that time when we first started talking about this, doing this whole thing. And here we are 20 episodes later, it's gonna be bigger and better. Like, even with this 20th having a live, even though it's janky as it is, it's crazy that we're live on three platforms. This is my first time. I've been in entertainment and music for a while, and I know I'm considered an unk, at least an unk right now. But this is so cool to me to have all this going on. But yeah, we're here because we're kind of recapping the conversations and the things that we had. Is it okay if I transition to some of the posts that we had?

SPEAKER_04 39:43

Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_02 39:44

Okay, I would love to talk about that for two seconds. So we asked you all to give us some questions to talk about. And one of the questions I really wanted to, I'm gonna mention both of them. One's kind of a joke. We'll do let's do the joke one first. Oh so the joke one, the messy one.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

Okay, hold on, let me pull it up.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

This was submitted by Randy Nigel, who is a uh friend of the show. By way of they they actually have their own podcast called Black Inquiry. I-N-Q-U-E-E-R-Y. It's a play on words, kind of like ours, where we do less talk. So Black Inquiry. You can see it on our BuzzFeed, Buzz Sprout page that has our podcast. They are the podcast that's on the bottom that podcasts that we like, or whatever it's at is at the bottom. He submits so basically something to talk about. This is a talking topic, and I'm gonna just read it verbatim. From he he copied this from someone else, the guy's name, Ty Riggs, and it says, Y'all could afford your kid's first year of college with the amount of money y'all spend on prom send-offs. Why are you renting a Maserati so he can get that girl pregnant when you can just rent a four-fusion that you only have to fill up when you returned it? This is prom season. I actually, so I just got my hair cut, and my main, the person that normally cuts my hair, Fay Bay Dominique, is she didn't have any booking. So I actually found one of the neighborhood barbers on Bookseat, which is an app I use. That and style seed are the two ones that I use to find people to do hair, or they you can find stylists, you can find every any type of cosmetic or whatever you can find it on these apps. And there's a neighborhood neighborhood guy who's been here for a while. I booked with him not knowing that he knew me. And when I walked in the thing, he was talking about how he knew me. He remembers me and my ex. They used to work, I think, together, or something like that when she was doing hair in the neighborhood. But, anyways, his wife is an event planner and she was working a prom today. So it is prom season. So we can answer this question, or we could talk about this for two seconds. The way that I feel about it, and obviously this was a question that is focused on the black community, I think, because we we've got this whole stigma that we invest money in things that are unnecessary. And to some degree I would say that, but first of all, who are we to judge? That's the first thing. Like, I feel like it's something that everybody does, that someone will say, this doesn't seem right, or this seems like a waste, or this, like it we could opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one. So that's the first thing. Second thing is I don't think it's necessarily wrong ever to invest in your children, regardless of how that looks, right? If if that's an elaborate prom send-off and they're not even walking down the the graduation aisle, that's terrible, right? But it's like at least they get some sort of something during their high school or experience. So I I don't necessarily see a problem with it, but I don't have any children. What do you think, Leslie?

SPEAKER_04 43:35

I don't care.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

See, Les Leslie's that type that's like, hey, if this doesn't affect me, I don't care. And it's not fucking up society.

SPEAKER_03 43:45

If I'm not on the road, if I as long as I'm not driving when they're driving, I don't care. She don't care. I literally don't. I literally don't. But what part of me, I mean, in in some of It is just like there's a lot of money that goes into those customary dresses because we certainly didn't look like that when we went to no, not at all.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

But I do remember going up to North Riverside Mall to get my outfit, and it was not a rented tux. It was paid for. I believe my outfit is still at my mom's house, dug away somewhere. And then I do remember they did rent a luxury car for me. I forget what kind of car it was. You know, it wasn't, I mean, it was it was cool. It wasn't like I know what Randy and this Thai person, I know what they're talking about when they talk about the elaborate prompts and I was like, you think it's a freak, you think it's the Grammys. The red carpet, it's pictures, photographers, I know, yes. It's cathery. Yeah, there's a whole like photo shoot.

SPEAKER_03 44:50

Yeah, it's like yeah, it's a production. Yeah. You know, there's the think you said red carpet and the photo boot, like photo ops, or photo curtain or whatever. Yep. And it's not and not just it's not just for them. It's like several like 50 hundred guests coming to the show.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

It's a whole like, yeah. It's a production.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

This debut or this promenade of this new young person who was at the end of their high school career.

SPEAKER_02 45:19

Moving into pre-adulthood, I guess. That would be what college, I think, is considered like pre-adulthood, because you don't you still don't have the bills necessary to be an adult, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 45:29

Yeah, or or 30. Something should kick in around that time.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 45:33

Yeah. So, you know, that's that's it's cool. You know, I certainly didn't get like all that. I don't think I wanted it, but it's just another way of people wanting better things that for their kids that they had for themselves.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 45:49

And I'm not gonna say shit about that.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

So that's right. That's right. So moving on. Second one. Now, this is the one that I like. This comes from my good friend Hannah. Christian and Hannah, shout out to y'all. Hey, if y'all are watching. Hannah writes, How has your friendship changed over the process of hosting this podcast together this past year? Did you want to start with that?

SPEAKER_01 46:18

No, I can't stand you. You're giving me more work to do. I gotta do media. What?

SPEAKER_02 46:30

Let's talk about that for two seconds, because I meant to talk about that at the beginning, like our process and kind of how we since this is a reflection episode, so the cover, we're hitting two birds with one stone. So, how we usually split up the work for this podcast, and it probably seems like it's not you guys are hearing the audio over, and you're just like, oh, they just get together. So Leslie usually comes up with the agenda. We'll discuss it, you know, but usually that's what she's tasked with is coming up with the nice strong agenda. And for me, I just do kind of like the marketing and the technical stuff. The technical stuff, because I do love technology. As you I mentioned in the first episode, that during COVID, I purchased some recording stuff so that I could be able to still record music from home during COVID. And we just have like repurposed it or not even repurposed, but expanded it. Because I still record music here, but it's expanded or expounded on this usage with the materials. So that's kind of how we kind of equally contribute uh to this particular project. But to answer, do you want me to answer first or did you want to Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 47:46

You can answer.

SPEAKER_02 47:47

Okay. So for me, I've gotten, first of all, to know my friend a little bit better. There, when this question came, I thought about it. Like, has there been any has it has there been anything that we've d discussed or talked about that was like new information to me that we hadn't talked about or discussed before? And there is one thing in one of our earlier episodes when you were talking about how at one point you thought that you were such an asshole. Do you remember that? Well, what like in general, like you would talk about in general, like how you show up in friendships or how you're Oh, yeah, yeah. You're just like, damn, I used to be terrible.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

And I was just, and even in the episode, you could hear me. I'm just like, girl, what are you talking about? So that was a learning for me. And then when I thought about it even deeper, I I I thought about this question to ask you, Leslie. Are you ready?

SPEAKER_03 48:45

Do I need a seatbelt?

SPEAKER_02 48:47

Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Okay, oh well. So my question to you is because, like honestly, I can't think of one moment that I feel like you were an asshole to me, or in any situation really that I've even been in, even when we talk about some of the friends that we may not even talk to, that we used to be mutually acquainted with, like, even when some of them were at their worst, like I know I have showed up in ways where I know I wanted to intentionally let them feel how they make me feel. You have always been like, in my mind, you've always been like the voice of reason, the one that is tempering is like, so when you threw that out there, I was just like, girl, what are you talking about? So that made me wonder like, has there been any moments in our past that, and the reason why I'm hesitating, like staggering when I'm talking is because when I thought about this, I was like, hmm, I wonder, did you think that this moment that we had or that moment, before I throw out what I what my thoughts are, I'm wondering, are there any moments in our past that you felt like maybe you didn't show up, or maybe you felt like you were being an asshole? It whether it involves me or anyone that we were mutually associated with, what's your thoughts? Because we didn't really get into detail when you mentioned that. And we probably should have, because I'm just like, girl, what do you who what's going on in your grade?

SPEAKER_03 50:23

In our past, I remember we had to sing. Oh yeah, this is for your I think for your album release party. Your album release.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

Oh my god, that was one of the things in my mind. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 50:35

Yeah, yeah. That part. And expound. So I'm realizing some things now, but I'm not gonna make it as an excuse. So like I was supposed to be designing t-shirts. Were you? Yeah. I don't remember. Because like one night, one night I didn't go out because y'all would want me to go out, and I was just like, no, I have to do some work. I gotta do, you know, I gotta do this thing. I'm just sitting there and I I went through the whole like paralysis thing where it's just like, okay, I I can't go out and have fun because I need to work. And I said I was gonna do this and I didn't do like I I need to work on this. Like if I'm going out, then that means that I'm just like totally naughty.

SPEAKER_02 51:16

F this word.

SPEAKER_03 51:17

Yeah, you know what I'm saying? So that's why I stayed in and like I was trying to like sketch some things together for these t-shirts that never came.

SPEAKER_02 51:26

I must have forgot about that because I've I completely forgot that I sure didn't say anything. We made it work. That must have been one of those just kind of coloring things, like like, oh, we can do like things that it wasn't. Yeah, because it wasn't the core of the project. Like they obviously things still went forward.

SPEAKER_03 51:47

And it was a it was a good time. I it was great. It was great. But yeah, I was just like one of the when for the album release party, as far as like the marketing and whatever, I made the press release packages, and just like they like I was told to do in college and told how to do it, but my dumb ass should have been like, okay, I had done an internship at one of these media places, and I've definitely seen pressed kits that looked a whole lot more interesting than the standard Manon envelope, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_02 52:22

And me, this being my first concert, I I didn't have a necessary like a standard. So whatever you would have done was was amazing to me. But that's funny. I thought of that concert as uh maybe something that you would that you now again. This is me thinking about what you might interpret as being an asshole. Not necessarily what I took as you being, because I didn't what I thought about what you mentioned is the release party. There was I know there were some times when there was some kind of soft deadlines that I wanted to throw out there in conjunction with the release party that I feel like I had to maybe re-ask a couple times. I didn't necessarily look at it as an asshole thing, though. I looked at it like you got a million things going on and you know, so it's like there was grace there, and it wasn't like you were just like unreachable or MIA or like you it wasn't like fuck this shit kind of energy. It was just like right, it was like my bad, blah, blah, blah, whatever. So I never looked at it like that, but that's that's the only thing I could really think of. Were there any other moments that you think of where maybe you were the asshole?

SPEAKER_03 53:46

I know that there will there will be times where like I would see a text message come through and I and I won't respond to it. And it's not shit. I never think that way. But that's what it seems like, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, I'm realizing that it it literally says red on there or whatever. I'm like, oh my god, I let them all read. And these are not, these are actually important people, you know what I'm saying? Like, you don't do that because it looks rude, but it in literally in my mind, it's like, okay, I'm not ready to answer that question right now or respond to it right now. Yeah, I'll get to it when I can, and usually I forget, and then that just is taken into like I think later on when I revisit these messages, like I haven't heard from this person in a minute. Like, oh shit, no wonder because of the fact that I left them on red and forgot to respond. It was my turn, and I just totally didn't like I just like you leave people hanging on like words with friends or something like that.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

What do they call it? Rabbit, what is when you're when you get distracted, what do they call that? Um I have an answer for you, but I want to give a more detailed answer, so let me turn back squirrel, squirrel. I the reason why I can explain this so great, because I that's why we're friends. I do that all the time myself when it comes to family, when it comes sometimes, even with work, I think I have a bit more control because that's my job and there's a reputation that I like to uphold. But and you and you want to make sure that you show up in the best way, and that's your job, your health issue. All this stuff that I now know, I am so pair, I am being unemp being unemployed is a trauma point. You really get to understand how fucked up you are and not having a job and the things that you thought were just that when I got my job, got reemployed, that's when I decided to get on my GOP journey, because I'm just like, it's not an option anymore. And when you didn't have a job, they tried like when you started to talk about that through Medicare, they had this this they they limited your options, and the options that I had weren't they weren't strong enough, and I couldn't go to my doctor and say, hey, you told me that this medication, which they did, was more effective for the goals I'm trying to reach than this one. And it's like, no, you you can't do the one that I recommend as your healthcare professional because Medicare doesn't cover it. They want you to die slower. Whatever. So we're quicker, whatever. Well, I say slower because they do give you something versus nothing, but it's it's just not as good as the stuff that the professional recommended. So going back to the point, help me, Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 56:47

So we were talking about like being assholes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:53

Well, I feel like did you have any other ex any other moments that you thought about where specific moments so not answering text messages or any correspondence in a timely ish manner that makes sense. Timely ish.

SPEAKER_03 57:08

It'll be like a week or something, and I'm just like, hold on a second, these people are important to me. I need to say something. Heart.

SPEAKER_02 57:16

Right. And I've kind of I've gotten used to the like I've understand, especially when you're busy.

SPEAKER_03 57:22

Or I'll be driving, or like I'm just like, hold on, like I'm or on my way to work or on my way somewhere because I don't have I'm not in my phone as much anymore because of my schedule.

SPEAKER_02 57:32

That's right. You literally back to back. Can I go? Let me go back to that for two seconds. Okay. I was gonna say that that's a good example of even our age, because when we were like in our 20s, remember I brought this up in the prior episode. We went out to do a what was that, a 5K glow run? And then right after that, I went on a stage with sore legs. I remember even my 20s, because I just finished a 5K, I was sore as shit, but my energy was still at 100. And we went out late to I performed for hours on the stage, and they came with me. We're drinking and we're dancing and singing. This happened in the 20s. Like back then, I feel like what we're doing now with the back-to-back schedule, and even with me in this last-minute show in DC, I feel like like now being 40, I was just like, damn, this, I gotta figure out travel and what am I gonna do? How long am I gonna be there? And you then we got our final episode. Like, this came after we already had scheduled weeks, months ago that we would record today, and that like this kind of threw it off kilter, and I'm trying to figure out how to fit it in because this is a great thing to do. It just would have felt way lighter, way easier in my 20s than it does now at 40. And I feel like that's the case with you. I feel like you would be spriting and spriting if that's a word, with what's going on right now 20 years ago than you are right now.

SPEAKER_03 59:09

And I have a whole lot more at stake now, right? Right. Right now, so not the same knees. Not not the same knees. And yeah, me thinking that I could do this again, like I I should have learned from the first time, understanding the fact that okay, now the the game has changed a bit.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

Just a little bit. Just a tink. But like you said, it is a goal that we're going towards, so uh it feeds into all that. But I just want to quickly, that was a thought I had earlier, like, man, this would have been nothing 20 years, even 15 years ago, with with us with having these kind of uh malleable scenarios.

SPEAKER_03 59:48

This is another reason, and I'll like I'll I'll answer the question also. So ever since I have known, well, not even really, but when we realized that we were like when we started to get to be really good friends, like in the beginning of college, we started to realize wow, we had a lot of the same experiences in the same spaces at the same times, right? And even in our in our lives separately, how things have paralleled so much between it's just so weird, you know. So like I think once we made that realization, not too long ago, like I guess at the concept of like we could do we could do something like a podcast where we talk about that. So around like the the first inception of this, we were just like, yeah, you know, we we experienced the same things and we ended up like touching back or getting back in touch at different points of our lives when they're like kind of mirroring each other. One goes through one thing first and another one goes through it at like at that point, you know what I'm saying? And it's just like how our kind our universes have kind of like aligned in a way, and so we used each other a lot to check in a lot, and you're just like, hey, are you having this kind of experience? And like, how are you doing that? And like, are you like are you growing from this and stuff like that? And that's how like those types of conversations, as far as like checking notes with each other, I think have made this friendship like so healthy and on a on a trajectory that's just makes sense for us.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:25

All best friends should have podcasts.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:28

Sure, why not? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

I mean, cool. Oh man. Somebody said 40 is the new 20.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

No, it's not.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:41

40 is 40. Shout out to you, Chai Town Followers official, and also the other ones that have been here, Tarvis Mac and your brother. He said you were eating on camera, and Zeke Zeke. Are you doing boo-boo?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:55

You're you're not supposed to do that.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:57

Well, I guess Andrew thinks so.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:02

You have to get back to him, really. Another one. And I think y'all have one. Uh y'all will love one. Thank you so much. Oh, brother. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:19

And I don't have war, then I'm gonna flush it down with more sugar. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:33

Over eating knowledge. So we kind of, you know, I guess I put on myself, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:43

All right, so getting back to the agenda. We've been talking about it throughout the show already, just reflecting on the podcast. Has this podcast or just this project in general impacted you in your current day?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:59

Wow. So I guess I would say that it's kind of I didn't think people well, it's not that I didn't think that people would listen to my type of story or our story. I think that maybe just didn't want to share that much.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:15

Because you're generally, I mean, I'm in a position of privilege because we're friends. So all the stuff that we've discussed and obviously a little bit more that's just between us, I get the opportunity to experience that with you. So from my vantage point, I'm just like, oh, we're just chatting like a you're but when I see how you interact with other people, I'm like, you're a bit more closed off with your personal life than I am. I'm pretty I shit. I I write songs about shit that I go through in their other iTunes right now. Uh that's really good. Stream Sweet Isolation, by the way, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:56

That was my favorite song.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:58

That's a very good example what I'm talking about. I literally took, you talk about intimate. I took an argument that I taped just in case I need to show it in court. Between me and my ex, it was a very aggressive argument. And I made that the intro of one of my songs. With her permission, though. Like once we came down and talked about, I was like, well, you know what kind of man that you've been with. I've been a musician the whole time. Check this out. Like I made it and I let her hear it, and she was just like, that's cool. Yeah, put it out. So I love that. I'm so I'm so one of our worst arguments is out there for streaming right now, sweet isolation.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:40

I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:41

But I've always been that way. I've always been kind of like an open, kind of an open book. There's some things I keep to myself too, but you know, I that that's probably where you and I kind of differ a little bit. Like um, I find it very cathartic to speak out. And a lot of times it's necessary, especially when we're talking about like politics and stuff like that, because as I'm understanding and learning as I grow, there are people out there who shape their views and ideas based off literally just their vantage point. So, you guys excuse me, I I really did have Hecke's ribs before she came before I turned on this camera. So I'm burping a lot. So good though. The one black-owned restaurant here in Evanston, Hecke's barbecues. If you're ever in this side of town, check it out. But I find it cathartic, but that's just how I've always been. But it I feel like it's necessary to tell your story, not just for community, but also because there are people out there who honestly don't know what vantage point that people like on the fringes or people who may be close to people on the fringes, or just whatever their worldview is, they they stick to that. And it's up to us, those kind of alt people to. Come in and shake shit up and be like, no.

unknown 1:06:03

No.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:05

It's not like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:07

Everybody can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps because dammit, you don't give them boots to pull their straps up from. Like, and this is how that looks. Like, everybody isn't afforded the same privileges that you believe that they that they that that they have. It's just that's not true. And this is how. So there's value in sharing your story.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

Yeah, and because at first I was kind of thinking, uh, what do I say, honestly? Because I was thinking, well, who needs to hear this? Like, why does it matter?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:39

You know what's really cool too? I truly believe that we haven't even like tapped the surface of folks, like when I when I'm sitting in these black alt groups on social media, Facebook, and now they're starting to come up on the less talk shy algorithms. Whenever I go into that account, I see stuff that now correlates with the stuff that we talk about. And like there's so many communities out there, and I feel like we fit in in a very gray space when it comes to a lot of things. And that's why I feel like there's value in our stories. And I feel like we haven't even touched the surface of reach, if that makes sense, because there's so many of us out there, and I'm in these groups. Thank you for. I think the first one that I saw was one by recommendation of you. I think you may have already been in it already. This black alt group on Facebook. And when I see like them post pictures and the events that they go to, they look just like the places that you go and the raves and the the clothes and and all those things. I haven't really gotten into that lifestyle that deep like that, but I feel like I've been in alternative spaces just growing up in the suburbs at the time that we did is an alternative experience in and of itself. I've been exposed to different kinds of people that now as an adult has helped and served me. But I feel like we have because I've seen the community, the the communities that are out there that fit our demographic, I feel like we haven't even touched the surface yet. That's why I'm so uh that's why I'm so excited and love this project so much. It's it it ties in so much. It ties in so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:36

Where did the Green Party come from? It's in the that's an alternative space. Wait, did I say Green? That's not what I meant to say. The uh what's that party when me and you uh in college were talking about political parties that you were in at the time. I talked about it on the on one of the earlier episodes. I was gonna say Pescatarian. It was an independent party. I I want to say that the color was green. You know what I'm talking about. You were in this party for years. What? This political party.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:08

Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. I was when when I was finding out about different types of political thought or whatever, I felt that I at the time was more like libertarian.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:25

Libertarian, there we go.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:27

Isn't their c party color green? No.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:30

Was it I don't know if there's a I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:32

I don't know because it's it was a color, so she I think it was green. There is a green party, but it's not libertarian.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:39

No. Oh well, no. I don't think you know, you I come aligned, I I it it's part of the whole growth part also is just like you can't just say something that you know you you hear two opinions on it, and then like, oh yeah, that's what you know what's going on, and not because everything's not black and white. No, it's not, and you it's just like not everything about one just because of two, like it's just like jumping into something before understanding what it is and expecting to be able to be a strong proponent. I'm thinking about jumping in the ocean and not really knowing how to swim in the ocean. Because just because you know how to swim in a pool doesn't mean that you can swim in the ocean.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:24

And I don't swim at all, so I have no idea that this I I stay away from both.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:27

And I don't like the ocean that much.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:30

But it's just it's but it's just like things in there that can kill you, including the ocean.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:38

The ocean itself with no creatures could kill you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:42

And you and you know, like for Halloween instead of watching scary movies, I just watched like National Geographic Bug, the deep water, the uncovered, yeah. The super deep waters, like you know, lost in Atlantis type of like scary. Yeah. So I love that. That's a good time for me. But you know, it's just being that that that type of ignorance is I'm trying to grow from and like actually read all the books. And yeah, so and that was another thing, my bingo card that we made, remember?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:12

Reading books.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:12

Yeah, reading books, because I had so many books, and I either never finished them or bought them thinking that oh yeah, it's gonna be interesting to read, and never read them.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:21

And you've gotten to some of those to to your point in terms of like things that have happened since we started this podcast. You've you've scratched some of those things off of your um.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:32

And those are the only things I scratched off because I don't have to do anything else, you know? That's okay because of the schedule that I chose. Yeah. But yeah, I I think I put the year on there too. I'm like, well, there's no time limit, but it could look like a little distant from the next time that you know, that I do another one. But as long as I have things to look forward to and then knock them off, I'll just do it. Yeah, I'm not gonna put myself on a time limit.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:59

That's right, because we're still living.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:01

Yeah, but just as soon as possible.

unknown 1:12:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:06

And I feel like you should have some carryover. Yeah. That's why it's a bingo card. Bingo card, you're not supposed to you you win by getting what? A bingo. A bingo. You don't win by covering the whole card.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:17

I mean, the the goal is to cover the whole card.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:20

Is it? But there, yeah. I thought it was just to get a row or like the connect.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:25

Well, it you can. You can. Like you can't, I can I can give myself a bingo. Like, it's just another layer of completing goals. Yeah. Where's like, oh, I'm gonna get a bingo, and like in order for me to get a bingo, I have to like write this 10-minute play and then something like that kind of thing. So yeah, it's like it's just a it's just a a game, and we can get and that's a way to get competitive too.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

Like the creators of the game that we that that we talked about at the early episodes where the winner has to pay for a trip or some shit. They were rich. Those those black girls were rich. Talk about I won and pay for a cruise or some shit like that. I was like, what? Because remember when we talked about that in the we talked about that in the early episode, and I was just like, yeah, I'll get you a hamburger or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:12

Yeah, we'll go to Sonic.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:14

Yeah, I mean, and and thank God with the place that I'm in now, If I'd actually probably upgrade to like red lobster or something, see. Probably get a little upgrade.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

Yeah, like Olive Garden. That'd be nice. But yeah, red lobster, heck of yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:34

Yeah, cheddar bait biscuits. Yeah. So you got I'll throw this out there since this is our 20th episode. If you have not heard the earlier episodes, you could literally kind of see the growth because I know one of the questions we have to transition was about our cadence. How did we get into this? One of the things that we I know early on I established a tagline that I wanted to use at the end of every episode where we said, This is your favorite uncle and auntie, and then Leslie came up with the but we ain't claiming y'all.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:10

Well, it wasn't meaning for that to be a thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:12

Yeah, now it's that's how we absolutely because it literally is a thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:17

I yeah. It's not it's it's not the intention, the intention of this is not to instruct. Yes. It's not to like instruct or whatever, it's just to align to find community who might have the same story or the same type of experience and to expound on that because black is not a monolith.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:38

There's so many types of everybody and it's just like if we can just start it there and just make people realize that nuance is a thing. We can't say it's dead because you it is unfair to just put people in the in the RGB type of box, you know, red, green green, red. Color light is on a spectrum, and if you want more light in your life, you have to embrace the spectrum.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:07

Yes. Drop them verses that that you're absolutely right. We are not a monolith, even when we think it if you do true African studies, like there were hundreds upon hundreds of tribes before we got fucked up by colonization, obviously. There were hundreds of tribes in Africa. So even us as a continent, like we functioned differently. There were societies that had matriarchal leadership, there was one some that had patriarchal leadership, like there was different structures and studies. There were some that acknowledged different sexualities and things like that within our lineage. And what happened with colonization, which in my mind, the way I'm interpreting, especially in this story, is a means to try to get uh create a monolithic society under colonization. I feel like that's one of the purposes. So when colonization came in, that's when all of that history got erased, and then they tried to teach us that some of the things that they didn't agree with, like certain sexualities or women in leadership, those are things that came from colonization, from the white man trying to take over Africa. And then we ended up, I don't know, Stockholm Syndrome, whatever, adopting, believing it, and then got went as far as to say, and this is even in some areas in Africa like Ghana where they have outlawed homosexuality and things like that. And it's like that's not true to the history of the land that you guys are on. You guys are trying and attempting so hard to be white and don't even realize it.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:52

Because just like in the last episode, the alignment to the majority culture meant survival, and that's what I was taught as far as assimilating goes.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:04

Go back to our assimilation episode, because we talk about that in detail about uh the assimilation. That's very true. That's very true.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:13

Yeah, and so like a lot of things get erased because of feeling that being farther away from that means acceptability. Well, survival ish, mostly survival. Right. Mostly survival for here.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:30

Yeah. And there everywhere that that was that European colonization has tried to usurp, it's all been about trying to put everybody on the same thinking, but it's it's it's really it's it's it's a whole nother level of Stockholm Syndrome when you get to a point where you have got you end up doing the work of the colonizer for them by erasing your own history and replacing it with theirs and thinking that it aligns with your history. Because like I said, you are often here a lot of the times like, oh, homosexuality, transness, that is the white man's disease. That's the white no, it's not. We there were they have a whole movie about it out now, The Woman King. Like it it scratches the surface of a book that I've been reading, um, that I've read and I still have to finish. It's called It's actually over there in it's on the top. Can you grab that for me? We're on live so you guys can see her go over there and get it. So it's a book. It's a book that I read during COVID that was suggested. I talked about in the earlier episode by female pastor at the former church I attended. Boy Wives and Female Husbands, it scratches the surface of the studies. Let me put this in the camera for anyone who is curious to see that goes into queer studies in in within Africa. It's not a white man's disease. It is part of our history. And here's the thing: anybody that's got any curiosity about the history of it, here's this is one thing I believe in life and how God shows up in a lot of ways. God will, you think that you've erased something, right? You think that you've gotten it, you've gotten away, you uh done away with some ideal or whatever, right? We were able as Africans to bring our spirituality and then infuse it into Christianity. And I feel like that's where we got our power during becoming independent, getting out of slavery, the revolts, all the things that the Martin Luther King's. Like our African spirituality is infused in that, and that's why there's power, but there's a different type of power in that than it is when you talk about traditional Christianity in other forms. I feel there's a special sauce with ours because I feel like we have infused the things that are ingrained in our DNA into our colonized spiritual, our colonized religion, and that's why it's different. That's why it's impactful. So that's one thing. But the second thing is when you think about if you study queer history in America, you find out there black folks like Marsha P. Johnson, who actually threw the first stone during, like you find out that we were at the forefront of the queer liberation movement in this country. There's a reason for that because we already had it, people. We already had it. We were already living into this prior to colonization. And it was just us tapping into something that was already within our DNA. That's why we were at the forefront. We didn't get the the bells and whistles for it when they came out with the movie stone while there was a white boy that they showed that uh drew the first stone. But we know because history tells us that it was a black trans woman that did that. There's no way that we would have been in front of that liberation movement if we already didn't have it ingrained in us. But that's just my personal belief. I'm going on another rant. So cadences.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:22

That was a beautiful segue. I loved it. Yeah. Yeah, so cadences.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:28

I feel like we, if you go from episode one to even 19, you can see that we got our flow. And a lot of times that just comes from, I think, getting in and doing the work. Kind of like when you start a new job. They can train you as much as they want, but at some point you have to start doing the work. And I and just for me, I don't know about anybody else. But I learn best by doing the work and getting my hands dirty and actually versus getting a bunch of training. Well, now I'm not gonna say versus, because you still need the training, but I would rather do two weeks of quick training and go on a work than to have two or three months worth of training, and then you forgot the stuff that you learned in in month one, and it's just like, oh my god, you forget that it's a job, you think it's just all training. Put me in the game, coach.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:23

I'm ready to play.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:25

If I fuck up, I'll learn along the way. But put me in the game.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:29

Look at that verse. Put me in, coach. I'm ready to play. If I fucked up, then what do you say?

SPEAKER_05 1:22:37

That's the ride right there.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:42

I fuck up, what do you say? Don't beat my ass. I'm doing my best.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:51

I just want to get this off of my chest.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:54

One of these days I'm gonna be the best. Just wait and see. Anyways. So no, we we you can hear it in the in the episodes. We have naturally grown with this, and uh I really am excited for the next season before I start to feel like I'm closing. Let me see. Has ooh, this is one I wanted to ask you. And you brought it up. Has has your goals changed since the beginning of this? Any expectations or directions has about the show. About the show. Like, has this turned out to be where you thought it would be? Has it been underwhelming? Has it been m more than what you expected? What's your thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 1:23:36

Well, honestly, I didn't I went into this with no expectations.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:41

That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:42

Yeah. This is where I feel like I'm being an asshole. Why do you think that's an asshole? Because like the way that you talked about this and just like coming at me with like ideas and like all kinds of things. And sometimes I'm just like, oh my gosh, am I matching the energy? I'm probably not matching the energy because I'm just like, oh, okay, that's nice. Sometimes, and I'm like, well, these are really good ideas, but can I do this? And so, like, it kind of I kind of appreciate the evolution of like from start to finish because we did one episode where we actually filmed it. Remember? We did.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:26

That's in the archives.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:28

And it looked really good. And then, but after that, we dropped off for like a year. Well, a lot, I don't a lot happened, but then that's it.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:36

Did we record? So we record oh my god, I forgot all about that. We recorded, and that's somewhere out there. Oh my god, we gotta put that in the lock. That's gonna we I'm gonna have to find that. And we're gonna have to put that out there.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:48

I think we still have it in the drop box. Got you.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:51

I don't delete anything. I don't delete none of the day of day. It's out there somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:57

Yeah. So I'm like, we did this before, and then we dropped off for a minute because I guess we life happened. Right. But you brought it back up again, and I kind of felt like maybe it dropped off because of me, because at that time I was doing I was also doing a musical.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:13

Did we record that? Did we record that first one at your house?

SPEAKER_03 1:25:16

Yeah, that one was at my house. And that was like at the beginning of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:20

Right. And I want to say it was almost like three hours. Oh my god. Like we forgot that the camera was there.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:26

I remember Yeah, we were just going.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:28

Because I remember towards the end, you were just like, oh shit, we're gonna have to cut a lot of this shit out because it's like that's not really well the hours, but then you also like some of that shit, like I forgot that we were taping, and that's not like that's the you and I conversation.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:43

Yeah, oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:45

This isn't for everybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:46

Yeah, yeah. And then just like not not just the the whole like well, okay. So at the beginning, things kind of dropped off. I thought it was because of my fault, because like I was doing musical then too at that time. And there was a lot going on. But then you were sending me, like when we were started talking about it again, because like you came at me because it for to me, I don't think that I was like, I think I kind of just let it go out of my mind. But then you kept coming back with like ideas and ideas, and then you were actually like putting in some work. I'm just like, oh shit, like he's he's serious about this, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:24

But like it's more than a notion, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:28

Let's go. Um, but yeah, like you were really trying to create this into like ferotion, and I'm like, okay, I know my strengths are not technical stuff or marketing or social media.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:43

Like, I hate all the marketing part isn't my me either, but uh technology for sure I love, and now we're at a place where a I yay can help us with some of those other areas.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:56

I got like heartburn.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:01

We're not using chat GPT. No, and we're real, and we're real people, as you can see. Glitch in the system. No, I'm joking. We are real. Some of the people that are well, the few folks that chatted are folks that we know who a person only is. Are they still awake? Well, Lyric is in one and hey Lyric.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:34

There well, I don't know where to look. Um hello, over there. Hello over there.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:41

Hey, hey. So basically the it so it sounds like this maybe exceeded your expectation.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:49

It has, it has. Like I didn't think that like five hundred like I didn't We just hit five hundred downloads a couple of weeks ago.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:58

That was so dope. Yeah. And did have you ever sat back and looked at the stats of I do this with my music, by the way. Like look at the countries and stuff and the areas where people are listening. There are folks listening to this outside of the country and like Singapore and places like that. And I'm just like, y'all trying to figure out what the black American experience is like. Yes, listen in. I'm happy to tell you.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:24

Listening from different IP addresses.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:26

Period.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:28

Owish.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:30

Period. They're trying trying to take over the world. Learn from get all the education you can. Oh. And we may be able to help. No, let me stop. Well, if Trump will shut this podcast down. They have us in jail. I'm joking.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:46

So, like, oh I did not know, or I I had no expectation that like anybody would just be interested in hearing me talk about like things because a lot of times I felt like I was I knew I wasn't the only one that was experiencing these things because you were too. That's right. And you had convinced me that maybe we can like reach out and find community who is is actually like the who has experiences like we had. Because a lot of times like in media, it's always struggle stuff with black folks. It's either we're in Englewood or somewhere in like some rundown Martin Luther King drive. In every Martin Luther King drive, apparently, it's a little hurt, a little neglected. You know what I'm saying? Which is like it's anyway, like the irony is it just really hurts me. I guess another episode. But I'm just saying, like it's not always what it is portrayed in the media. There's always that middle space, and there's always different types of people and different types of educational background. And we just want to like see like to just reach out and see.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:07

That's right. That's right. You uh are you done with your thoughts? Yes. Amen. I am right in alignment with you. Cool. This has exceeded my expectations. I and I've learned a lot. There's some things that are right in alignment with what I thought it was. I I thought I would one of the reasons why I got into this project, aside from sharing stories, and I love to talk and stuff like that, is and I love to share my stories. This is a different medium. I've done it, like I said, through song traditionally or through social media, and now this is like an official podcast, and it's what we said this in one of the earlier episodes, a time cap, what we say?

SPEAKER_03 1:30:55

It's a it's a time capsule. It's a video diary or a diary.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:00

A diary time capsule, something like that. Absolutely for that. But one of the things, one of the goals that I had was to actually learn about marketing and a little bit more about just having content and how to push it effectively. And I've that's exceeded my expectations too, because we have clips out there on our Instagram. They have thousands of listens and there are comments that I found that are from people that are not connected to any of us through like Facebook, because when they post from the Instagram page, it goes to my uh Lester J Facebook, like my regular Facebook page, but it's posted as public. So whether you're a friend of mine or not, it goes out there. And there's folks sometimes go on their profiles, and they're from rural areas in the in the country, and they're listening to these clips. And I'm just like, that's so cool that some of these messages are going out there, and hopefully it piques one's curiosity to learn more. But like I said, I I f I know we have not even scratched the surface of this particular community of alt black. If if I had to describe what our podcast is about aside from being a personal journal, I think that's how Apple has categorized our podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:26

Yeah, yeah, a journal.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:27

Yeah, like a journal, audible journal. We are also alt-black. And it's not necessarily like going and when people hear that, I feel like it's always maybe there's negative connotation attached to it that it's associated with uh trying to assimilate to whiteness. And that is not what the alt-black experience is about. It's literally about this is what the not society, but like media, and these kind of outlets that are available to most folks. This is how they portray us, and we're different from that in this way, this way, and that way. That's what I consider an alt experience.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:14

And people who eat on camera.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:16

That's right, Andrew. And you better send him a text, let him know, look, stop riding on your sister, leave her alone.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:28

Dang it.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:30

No, we we appreciate the reposting the the support, Andrew. Tell your brother, the uh tell Sean, and and then when you finish that, tell my brother to support this doggone podcast, because I don't ever see him talk about us. But anyways. So yeah, it's exceeding my expectations in that manner, and it makes me excited for next season. We'll probably talk about it more off-camera, but I'm thinking we'll probably just to keep the cadence going, probably start back up in September again. The unique thing about when we started, it for me, and you can add your thing, but for me, September, October is when my wedding season starts to kind of fade. You'll notice that when I do my own personal shows is usually at the end of the year or right at the top of the year, because that's when wedding season is kind of slowed down or completely stopped during like the late fall, winter time, early spring. So I have a lot more free time to dive into personal projects, and this is definitely that. And now we've got a cadence where things run a little bit smoother. There's still a lot more refinement and a lot more things I want to do. I'm going to speak this on the camera just because I believe speaking things to fruition is what helps make things happen. I definitely for next season want to bring some folks on, you know, there's a uh since we've started this, I don't know about you, but there's been a few people that have reached out to me on certain topics, friends of both of ours or just mine, that have offered perspective on certain topics. And I'm just like, would love if we readdress this for you, the add your perspective. Because these are all people who fall under the alt umbrella as well. But in terms of the timing, let's go back to that. What what's your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 1:35:37

I uh I want to get done with some things.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:39

I can see you looking at me from here.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:43

You look at like more more more things. I'm on vacation.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:49

Period.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:52

But no, we can uh revisit that and I do agree with like keeping it going for however long we want to.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:01

And because we do what we want.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:04

Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:05

Whatever.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:06

So yeah, I I I guess keep it going. And when things get settled, I would like to actually experience the settling.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:20

What's the uh w whether you could say the set settling?

SPEAKER_03 1:36:23

Just a break after a break. But I guess I mean you the fall. The fall makes sense. The fall makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:30

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like when the readdress, and then of course, we uh have more discussion. Like I really I actually like the live element as well. I'd rather eat on just eat and not be criticized. But you know what? You can correct that because you got you got Andrew's number. I was gonna say, maybe not necessarily live, but one of the things that Black Inquiry has done for their new season is that they they do have the video now associated with their the podcast, just like us. They started just audibly, and then this new season they've got it almost looks like a Zoom meeting where they're on camera and they do their discussion there. And it looks actually more convenient because you could do it from home or wherever you're at. And there's I don't know, I feel like there's a certain element that's attached to when folks can see you versus just hear you. So I would love to explore that for season two along with having guests. How about you?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:34

Uh sure. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:41

What's your true thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 1:37:43

I the the the whole like live part of it is just Well, maybe not like I said, maybe not live, but like video. Okay. So that means I can't do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:56

Because you can edit well, you can edit it in in any kind of way that you like, just like we do the audio part and but it really just the audio part because that means like I can't come here wearing a ten dollar wig, you know. Is that how much that we come?

SPEAKER_03 1:38:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:13

Lyric actually had said something about the wig early on. I think she had said that it it looked dope.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:20

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:21

Yeah. It won't let me go back that far for some reason. Ugh. Anyways.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:28

Well, yeah, like and it's and it's it's fresh.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:30

She said okay for that look. That's what she said.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:33

Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:34

Oh she said she said the whole look.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:38

Well, okay, I'll take it as a compliment. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:42

Yeah, because like it was it was ten bucks. Uh I don't even know if it was on sale. But yeah, it was it was on sale. I was shopping for um some theater stuff for a musical.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:02

Okay. Yeah. Costume shopping.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:05

Yeah. And well, more more like hair and makeup. I'm designing hair and makeup for the show.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:11

And so like you go in there and I'm just I'm looking strictly for the dressing room and everything. But then I I go back and I'm just like, how much did that weigh cost? So yeah, I turned around and made another purchase and made a uh a purchase for myself for myself, you know, after after I took care of what I was supposed to take care of, then I, you know, I took care of me with a $10. That's okay. Yeah, but I should know I should know better that with like a brand new lace front, you need to like pluck it out a little bit or shape it and something like that. But like I did the best I could and with the time I had, but Lyric said you're always serving.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:55

The look is always serving.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:57

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:00

You and Lyric could probably have more of a detailed conversation when it comes to wigs and I've heard her mention plucking and things of that nature. I don't know of such things. Uh you just give your hair braided your fucking. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:16

But yeah, like it's just being on on this type of I don't know, platform where it's live and whatever. It's like it brings a whole new awareness to me that makes me a little like weird.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:30

We you know what? We could just save it for special occasions, maybe for the next finale.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:35

Yeah, because now you can play it back and you can be like, What was that in their nose? Or you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 1:40:42

I love how they can see, like for me, I always especially in the back room because it's a little dusty and stuff back there, little particles, like allergies.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:53

Like little setup, and then like the air is like there's full-on windows, that's not facing the train.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:01

Like in the back room.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:02

So you can actually open it like over here without the rumbling going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:07

That's right. That's right. Remember in the first episodes where a train would go by, we'd be like, hold on, let's pause, even though the mic wasn't picking it up.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:16

Speaking on cadence, we we oh, this process. Yeah, we just talk through it, and then you know, our editor, uh, the the engineer oversees, you know, if it's a problem, he fixes it because we don't ever hear it in the final recording.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:32

So and I didn't know that was gonna another thing, I didn't know it was gonna like turn out that good as far as like the sound quality and everything. Oh for it being the first time.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:43

I'm gonna shout out, I'm trying to pull it up. I found them in Fiverr. I love, you know, I've used Fiverr in the past. If you guys, if you know, you know, F-I-V-E-R-R is the app. And the guy, his name is Wozinchek B. Am I saying this right? Wolzek? Woshench? Who they usually have nearly.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:12

I feel bad because like I'm just destroying this person's name, and they do such great work, and they're just like and he's actually from Poland.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:23

So it tells you where the the merchant and you know whoever that where they're from.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:29

So Poland, he's do that come up on the stats.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:35

He is very good. You can find him on Fiverr. He's very, in terms of my in my thoughts, he's pretty reasonable when it comes to pricing for audio engineering for podcasts, and that's all he does. You guys probably can't see his face. Little polling cutie. I don't at least his picture if it's not AI. I'm probably not gonna see it.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:59

Isn't there like some, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:01

You know what I'll do? I'll throw his info now. I will plug him just because he's he's done really good work, and we plugged the folks that we work with near and far. Like I plugged um the guy who mixed the intro music, who is an engineer I've worked with forever. We plugged it to the music. He tore that shit up. But he he he he's done, he's mixed a lot of my favorite songs. There's a song I have out called Love Like Mine that he mixed, and that's probably one of my favorite uh songs he uh he's mixed. But he also mixed Sweet Isolation and worked with me with that intro and ideas for that. So he's he's super dope. But I'll throw him in our Instagram if anyone, you know, is curious to know who helps us with our our team, if you will, in Poland. So I think that's all I got. Do you have anything coming up? Or is there anything else you want to cover before we hear on out? Because I got a pack child.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:05

Yeah, and I need to sleep.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:10

Y'all heard the this the the the schedule she's been having. She's been running ragged.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:14

Even on the weekends, like even on our three-day weekend.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:19

Um You're still working.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:22

But I chose this.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:24

You chose this life.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:26

I did. I'm gonna do the best I can. Yes. I chose it.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:30

And that's and that's all we could do is the best. So what you got coming up?

SPEAKER_03 1:44:35

So there are a few more I was gonna say a few more episodes. There's a few more performances for uh the revolutionists. Uh just look up uh Violet Surprise Theater and check out the next of our shows. Like, I'm not gonna be in all of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:56

They do list what cast is with associated with each performance. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:02

And there's two different casts, but sometimes performances based on schedule is a little hybrid.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:08

Mix and match. I'm telling you, that it leaves for such an awesome the first one that I saw, well, the one that the first one I saw was one that Leslie was a part of that cast, but they I think last minute switched out one of the characters. And to me, like we do stuff like that all the time on on the singing side, on the music side, like sometimes people get sick, things like that. And because you already know the material and you rehearsed in it or whatever, people switch out all the time and you never know it. And people, when we finish our performances, will come up and be like, Oh, how long have you guys been playing together? Like, oh, we just met each other today. That's is lit.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:49

When I first heard about bands like that, that was I'm like, are you serious? You just you found them on what?

SPEAKER_02 1:45:57

Yeah. Well, uh, usually either by audition or recommendation. We just don't pick people up off the street, but just the fact that they they have vetted talent and they're all at the same level or exceed the level so that they can put on a great show. That is that type of experience. But and on the theater stage, which I've never I can't even conceptualize unless we're talking about improv, I can't really even conceptualize that type of show, but you guys execute that so well. And when I first saw the adapt that adaptation of the show that Leslie was on, and then to find out afterwards that, oh, this isn't even the original cast that I have been rehearsing with for months. This one person was is from cast B, you know, and it's just like, wow, I didn't even know that. I think if you were to tell me like one of us is not like the other, can you guess which one? I wouldn't even be able to pick it out, and I probably would get it wrong just by guessing because the way that they have it structured, you they can just weave in and out like that. And that's I just never heard of that in theater.

SPEAKER_03 1:47:07

Yeah, it is it is quite a different experience, and to being adjusted to that, and yeah, like it it's it's it's totally different, and it's it flexed the muscle in me that I'm not even gonna realize I have, but however, I am tired. So that's that's it. Well, not that's it, but like also there is a production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Theater Western Springs. Great musical. It there's a lot of work that's been put into it, and it's it's it's a really beautiful, funny musical.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:44

When is that gonna be out?

SPEAKER_03 1:47:46

So that is actually opening next week. The Thursday, Thursday, May 28th through the 31st, and then Thursday, June 4th through the 7th. So it's two weekends a week after next. That's going. And yeah, the the choreography is super cute.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:10

That's what we talked about earlier with the knees.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:12

It is, yeah. I need to go ice my me. Because like on my body don't go, but I I do my best that I can, and it's just an experience to be able to make some magic like that. There's that, and I was trying to find I also got invited to do a podcast what regarding the show Revolutionist that I'm also in. I was trying to find some details on that.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:39

Really?

SPEAKER_03 1:48:40

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:42

I didn't know that. Is it is it like a cast thing, or is it just like you for your character, or how's it set up?

SPEAKER_03 1:48:49

Well, I think I think it's it's it was gonna be me on there. I know my director's gonna be on there. I'm not sure if anybody else is gonna meet. Like, this is just like it like today news.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:00

So I'll be on for that, and that'll be in June, actually.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:06

You know who I would love to have on the show next season from your camp? Allison. Ooh, uh, now that would be because you told me that she like has a thing for like 90s, like uh throw black, uh throwback uh yeah, throw black. Throw black sitcoms. It did I just make up a word?

SPEAKER_04 1:49:28

It did.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:29

Like old school sitcoms, like living single and those kind of things. I would love to have a conversation with Allison on this platform where we have episode, maybe just talk about throwback stuff and just get her perspective.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:45

Yeah, um, but I mean, she's also a playwright who has been featured on several stages across the world. Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:52

I look, I'm just talking about what intrigued you about her. Outside of the record, because I was able I'm I I saw her on stage. Obviously, I saw the uh five lesbians eating the quiche, and that was the first time, and she was hilarious then and everything. But when you told me that little bit, I was like, this girl don't know. I would let's let we need to have a conversation. Let me pick her braid to see how much she really knows. So I would love that, and then of course you talk about theater and stuff too, but that'd be a conversation where I'd probably be more of a student. But when we're talking about the 90s black comms, what did I just call it?

SPEAKER_03 1:50:31

Call them throw blacks.

SPEAKER_02 1:50:33

The throw blacks? The throw blacks? Yeah. I could go we could have uh we we could that will be a conversation. That won't be a teacher-student situation. So, anyways, anything else covered up?

SPEAKER_03 1:50:51

No, I think that's uh for now. Yes, that's it for now. Okay. What do you got going other than well, you gotta get the heck out of here tomorrow?

SPEAKER_02 1:51:00

I'm going to be in DC. I'm performing on Monday at Pride in the Park. It's gonna be a quick little set. However, I'm really excited just to be in a new space with with my music. I've gone to Atlanta with my my original works and house music, and they really was receptive there. But this particular one, when I was in Atlanta, that was more so I was hired by one particular person, the DJ who I've worked with, to do his events. So it was kind of I was there just really for him and his event. With this thing, they've got all these events going on, and like Duran Bernard is going to be at one of the events, and he is he's the hot queer RB artist that's out there. He just won a Grammy, right? This past season and acted a plum fool up there, which I love. I I love Duran Bernard, but and he's also a Midwesterner, I believe he's from Michigan or whatever. But he, one of the people who's gonna be at Pride in the Park, one of my friends knew one of the other performers because he's from DC, which I told you when we were kind of pregaming today, and he's gonna be doing the show with Duran Bernard. So I just feel like it's gonna be a really good opportunity to network with musicians and and and creatives outside of Chicago. You haven't been on Facebook, so you haven't seen this conversation. But one of the things I was when I got hired to do this, I was a little offended, not at DC, but at Chicago, because I'm like, I've been performing in this city for like two decades now professionally, and I have not been asked outside of like as a solo artist to like I perform for Howard Brown in there. They have a fundraiser that they do every year. I've been hired to do that. I've been hired to do queer events with my old church and the choir through the Amy Winehouse, Tears Dry on their own group that I'm in. They did Market Days once, and obviously I was backgrounding for that, but I've not had anyone from the community reach out and want to book me for something here in my hometown. And I know it's hard market and things like that, but I was just like, damn, that's kind of fucked up that the first queer event that I'm hired on as a solo artist outside of the Atlanta work, because that was for MLK, all those events, and for DJ Ron Pullman, shout out to him in Atlanta. But this is the first time I feel like I've done like a queer event solo, and that came by way of a city outside. So I say that to say don't just limit your resources to inside of the city that you live in, because sometimes your support, let me rephrase that. Not sometimes your support, but sometimes you will find additional support outside of your hometown. So I'll be in DC this weekend, and hopefully this maybe opens up doors for other things now that I have an opportunity to get in front of a different market. It's a black market too. I've always wanted to do black pride here in Chicago, but and I'm connected with some of these organizers here too. Not gonna call anybody's name out. I'm not gonna call anybody because I know we're live. So I will look at the camera. I'm not gonna call any names out, but haven't got a call yet. Would love to do it Pride here in my hometown. Lester J. I do all kinds of genres: house, dance, the pop stuff that y'all like up there in Boys Town. I do all of that shit. Look me up with Brad uh uh Brad Kemp, who I went to school with. I have a project that's out there on streaming right now with drag race superstars like Evie Odley and Shea Koolet. If you look up Brad uh Brad Kemp on the floor, it's a total pop dance collaboration album that he did. I went to school with this cat, and I this is that's the second project I've done with him, and we have done songs and collaborated on that project with drag race superstars, Evie Odley and Shea Kool-Aid. So, like I'm I love pop music, I love dance, I'm RB to the core, but I love other things too, and I fit very well in those markets. Somebody give me a call, goddammit.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:39

Yeah. It reminds me of that Mike Jones song.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:42

Mike Jones.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:43

Back then they didn't want me. No, they all own me.

SPEAKER_02 1:55:46

Yeah. Don't wait. I don't think I'm in the hot stage yet, obviously. But no. But I I am excited for that.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:55

While they can afford you. Just saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:56:01

Right, right. While the rates are discounted right now. Let me stop. So LesterJ.com. I have a bunch of shows this year with Shea Buther, one of my groups. It's an RB group where all the cats in the band are elder white guys and the lead singer myself. And then sometimes we do shows with my good friend Nisi Butler, we're African American, where the and we do soul music. It's kind of a play on the name Shea Buther and the lineup and how the aesthetically the band looks is kind of like that's uh funny within itself, an alternative within itself. But I have a lot of pub, I have a we probably got more public shows this year I have with Shea Buther. Like we're gonna be at River Forest, and I think we're gonna be at Oak Park. Like we're doing a lot of public shows this year, more than I I have, I think, in a while with them. So all the dates are on my website, lesserj.com, and they're free. The ones with Shea Kool-Aid. Oh, Shea Kool-Aid, with uh Shea Buther.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:12

Shea Kool-Aid.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:13

Shea Kool-Aid, I keep thinking she's the drag race. Again, it for the pop stuff. For anyone who books any of those events in Boys Town, I get with the pop stuff. Look up Brad Kemp on the floor. I am on that project with Shea Kool-Aid and uh Evie Odley. But anyways, and a lot of other Chicago artists on that compilation as well. But all the stuff is on my website. Check it out. I hope to see you at something this year. Anything else?

SPEAKER_03 1:57:50

No. I think it's time.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:52

I think it's time. Well, you guys, this is your favorite, hopefully soon to be favorite, uncle and auntie. But we ain't claiming y'all. Neither one of y'all, because there's no text write-offs after you turn 28.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:07

Uh yeah, I I can't I can't afford it. And so you just take what you want, but I'm not giving it to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:14

That's right. We're signing out. Thank y'all so much for your viewership. We will see you again on season two. If you have not listened to the prior episodes, please catch yourself up on those because we will be likely expounding on those conversations in season two with more people. It's gonna be so dope. You heard that you heard that to it.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:38

I'm an asshole now.

SPEAKER_02 1:58:43

Bye y'all.