Uncle Gary's Two Cents Journey

Uncle Gary's TWO CENTS JOURNEY Starring Gary (Uncle Gary) Corbin, a 50-Year Cancer Survivor and Crazy, One-Legged, Black & Gay Male who is Chronologically 68 but Spiritually a Rebellious Teen is a magazine-style format and Lifescope, Edutainment & Cultural Think-Tank Journey. 

This MARVTASTIC & Unique Podcast asks questions and seeks answers to life's challenges. Answers are not always guaranteed, but we aim to explore pathways to potential solutions. Join us, the journey will be well worth the trip!

Transcript

Uncle Gary's Two Cents Journey

SPEAKER_01 0:07

All the board. All aboard. All aboard. Got your train tickets? Got your train tickets?

All Aboard Pilot

SPEAKER_01 0:17

What the crow crows, and the train is boarding the station. It is time for Uncle Gary's Two Cents Journey.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

And this is your invitation to join us in this unique and Marftastic new podcast called Uncle Gary's Two Sense Journey. It's not a literal train, but a journey. We don't need actual tickets, just a little of your time, imagination, and your undivided attention. I'm Gary Corbin, aka Uncle Gary, your main host, who is celebrating 50 years as a cancer survivor, and a crazy one-legged black and gay male who is chronologically 68 but spiritually a rebellious team.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

And I am your conductor, Jimmy Back. Didn't I promise I was coming back? Together, we will take you on a global life scope, edutainment, and cultural think and journey.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Where we ask questions while seeking answers to life's challenges. Answers are not always guaranteed, but we aim to explore pathways to potential solutions.

Cut?

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Today's questions are Are you culturally competent? Could you dance on one leg? And what the heck is Jimmy Mac's pancake

Song Cue

SPEAKER_01 1:55

house?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

We will hear some storytelling and explore the life and times of peg leg baits. What happens when a young black kid has his leg amputated on the kitchen table during the Jim Crow era in the South?

SPEAKER_01 2:13

One answer is how peg leg baits still rose to become a world-renowned dancer. And so much more.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

How does an unlikely friendship develop between a Pakistani cab driver and an African-American female passenger? Renowned Las Vegas storyteller, the late Benny Tate Wilken, will share one of her final and most heartwarming stories.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

We will also introduce an ongoing segment titled Who is Uncle Gary? Part 1. Our main host, Uncle Gary, will begin sharing more about himself and his life's journey. In fact, in the coming weeks, months, and hopefully years, we here at Uncle Gary will help you get to know us, and we will get to know you as members of our global family.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

And finally we will hear again from Jimmy Mac and how he survived Hurricane Henri. Was Jimmy's house flattened like a pancake? Or was there a happy ending? Fasten your seat belts because the journey will be well worth the trip, and our Martastic journey begins now.

Part 2 Who is Uncle Gary

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Who is Uncle Gary? Greetings. I am so excited. Of all the things you could be doing with your time, you decided to spend it with us. So who is Uncle Gary? Now this is the first of many episodes. So this episode's Who is Uncle Gary will be a bit short because we have so much to cover. First, as your main host, I am Gary Corbin. I am first and foremost an actor, an award winning playwright, performance artist, and the main host and producer of this new unique and morfastic podcast. I was born in Cambridge, Maryland and raised by a single mother in Baltimore, and my grandmother, who was also my best friend. Both mom and grandmom are now deceased. So this inaugural episode is dedicated to their memory. My mom was a single mother who raised me and two younger brothers. Although I was raised in Baltimore, I now see myself as an adopted son of New York, which is my current residence, and a place I have lived on and off for many years. In addition to being the producer of this podcast, I will use the transferable skills from many decades in the arts as a performer and arts administrator to also develop what I earned in my master's degree in counseling, option rehabilitation counseling, and I got that degree in my late 50s. It's never too late. In my other career, I practice a combination of behavioral career and mental health counseling. So those skills will be transferred and combined with my career in the arts. So I self-describe as a 50-year cancer survivor and crazy one-legged black and gay male who is chronologically 68 but spiritually a rebellious teen. But what does that mean? It means it puts me smabbed in the middle of being part of more than one group that people like to marginalize and look down on. In fact, there are some places in the world where they would execute me or send me to prison for a very long time just for being who I am. Some people see me as a menace to society or someone who causes a lot of discomfort. Still, others will see me as their lovable Uncle Gary. Either way, one of my main goals of this show is to share things that might help people survive this thing we navigate called life. It brings me great joy to share in the coming weeks, months, and hopefully years how I survived four life-threatening illnesses. I survived bone cancer and the loss of much of my right leg at the age of 18. Before the chemotherapy, it was predicted that sometime in my life I would have a heart condition. That heart condition came a few years ago in 2017, after I was finally cured from hepatitis C, which happened much earlier. We couldn't pinpoint exactly when, but the hepatitis C got into my system and stayed dormant for many years and miraculously did no damage to the liver. My doctor at the time before the cure said that the hepatitis C went to sleep and waited for the cure. And again, a year after the cure from Hep C, the heart failure that was predicted almost a half a century earlier finally arrived. But today in 2026 with medication, I am healthy and in great physical shape. Mentally, I am also surviving a diagnosis of bipolar two disorder that is also treated with medication. I am mentally stable and blessed to host this Marvtastic podcast. In upcoming episodes, I will share more of who is Uncle Gary. Now I will simply share how delighted I am to be your Uncle Gary, who is at the stage in his life where I want to give back and help pay the better world by encouraging all of us to reach our fullest human potential. This Martastic offering will offer a multifaceted format that includes sharing stories, soapbox, commentary, sometimes conducting interviews and other goodies. So sit back and enjoy this inaugural episode and part of this celebration of my fifty years as a cancer survivor. Welcome to Uncle Gary's Two Sense Journey.

Honoring Binnie Tate

SPEAKER_00 10:09

But before she passed, she gifted us with one of her last Marfastic works, Remembering a son. Benny Tate Wilkin served many years as a Las Vegas-based storyteller, but she was world-renowned. She was also a poet, author, and so much more. In 2019, she was inducted into the California Library Hall of Fame. And she was also one of the founders of the American Library Association's Black Caucus. We are pleased to honor Benny Tate Wilkin.

Are you Culturally Competent?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Maybe he gravitated toward me because I was the only person of color in the class. He was tall and handsome with light brown skin, the color of the lightest pecan shell. And just as smooth. His jet black hair matched eyes of the same color. Hello, he said simply. Hi, I answered. I'm Vinny. No. Oh, I got it. He said with his lovely accent. Nice to meet you. I gotta run. I don't want to miss my bus. I'll see you tomorrow. Wait, he said, I will come. I waited.

music cue

SPEAKER_02 11:51

And many years ago, my friendship with Hassan had begun while I was studying at a school of library science in the northeast section of the United States. Later I learned that special arrangements had been made for Hassan to come to this country and study for his library science degree. I also learned that he was focused on contributing to the development of libraries in his home country, Pakistan. While watching television at my home, he learned about the separateness of African Americans from mainstream society. He often asked surprising questions. For example, does she represent the American standard of beauty? Being close friends was the extent of our relationship. American styles of intimacy and courting were hard for Huslan to flatter. Touching between us was hurt and a couple of kisses on the cheek, probably initiated by me. However, one day I asked Hassan how to say I love you in Urdu, his native tongue. He told me there was no direct way to translate I love you, but he taught me to say my two gata. Which he said meant I do love with you. Now fast forward 20 to 25 years when my husband and I arrived in Washington, DC by train and waited outside for our turn as the long line of cabs picked up passengers. When the driver heard that our destination was Southeast DC, the traditional African American community, he was not pleased. Agitation showed in his face. Sitting in the back seat, I noticed that the identification license, cab drivers are required to post, indicated that the driver was Pakistani. I said, I used to have a Pakistani friend who taught me to say I love you in Urdu. And I repeated the phrase, remembered after all those years, my chun table habitab. And his face lit up, a grin spread from ear to ear. The driver then began to ask us questions, and we chatted about our backgrounds and more. When we arrived at my aunt's house, the driver jumped out of the car, grabbed our bags, and carried them up steep steps to my aunt's door. After we gave him a substantial tip, he shook our hands and left smiling because of one meaningful cultural connection. That man's preconceived notions of a negative trip to Southeast DC had become a pleasant encounter for all of us. I never found out what happened to Hassan. We grew apart probably because he learned that people of color from other countries need not always live lives of restriction and separation designated for African Americans. I hope Hassan accomplished his dreams and live to be a ripe old age as I have mine too. See what happens.

Could You Dance on one leg?

SPEAKER_00 16:28

It's a story written by staff writer Cleo E. Brown, and the question is, could you dance on one leg? Cleo Brown's story is No Sympathy for Me, please, about Peg Leg Bates. Pegley Bates was born Clayton Bates at birth. On November the 11th, 1907, he was born in Fountain in South Carolina. His parents, Emma Bates and Ruth Stewart, were sharecroppers. Clayton wanted to be a dancer, not a sharecropper or farmer. Therefore, he performed before his first live audience of at five years old. He performed buck dancing, which is similar to cat dancing, before an all-white audience at the local garbage shop. Clayton's mother disapproved of him dancing. One day, she went into town grabbing him by the hand and telling his audience, You will not make a monkey of my son. Go make a monkey of your own children. At the age of 12, Clayton began working in a factory. One day the electricity went out in the factory, and Clayton stepped on a piece of equipment called an auger, which chewed up his leg. Unfortunately, the year was 1923 and in the rural South when no hospital would admit him. Clayton's leg, therefore, was amputated on his mother's kitchen table the next day without anesthesia. This tragic incident led Clayton's mother to believe it was a condemnation of her by God for letting her son work in a factory. And Clayton lost his faith in God. But when Clayton was 14, his uncle Witt made him a wooden leg. Clayton taught himself how to tap dance using the makeshift leg, from which his nickname Peg Leg Bates

Music Cue Start Tap Dancing

SPEAKER_00 18:46

began. By the age of eight of 15, Clayton was once again proficient enough at dancing to enter amateur talent shows and other dance competitions. From these competitions, he networked his way into professional dancing and worked the international circuit until 1940. By the age of 20, Bates was dancing on Broadway. But due to extreme segregation throughout the United States, he was forced to perform in blackface to conceal his being a Negro. He was also not allowed to eat in whites-only establishments. However, later in his career, Bates became such an international sensation, performing before royalty and major audiences worldwide, that he was able to stop performing in Blackface and eat wherever he desired.

Music Cue to Fade Out

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Around 1940, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Bates executes a jet plane in which he leaped five feet into the air and then somersaults across the stage until he lands on his leg. This routine became his signature piece and eventually propelled him into international stardom. In 1951, Bates brought a country club for African Americans, which he owned and operated until 1987. The club was located in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, and distinguished guests and performers included Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Sidney Portier, Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington, Billy Holliday, and Mel Dormay. In 1987, Bates decided to sell his business after the death of his wife. And the civil rights movement forced white-owned establishments to accept African Americans, but it ironically led to a decline in supporting black-owned businesses. When Bates' health declined, his daughter Melody stepped in to care for him. Eventually, Bates returned to his hometown of Fountainhead, South Carolina until he died on Sunday, December the 8th, 1998. The legendary dancing man was 91 years old when he suddenly collapsed and died while walking home from church. Bates' death was on the same day he received an award at a fundraiser. Bates is famous for saying, Don't look at me in sympathy, for I am glad I'm this way. I feel good knocking on wood. I am Peg Leg Bates, the one legged dancing man. Today Streets and monuments are named after him in New York and South Carolina. So having said that, could you dance on one

Pancake House Intro

SPEAKER_00 22:13

leg? And now more of Jimmy Mac, who promised he was coming back. What the heck is Jimmy Mac's Pancake House? Well again, here is our conductor, Jimmy

Pancake House Segment

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Mac.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

I live in a fifty-five plus community of modular homes. Directly in back of me is a forest filled with very large, mostly pine trees. Pines have shallow roots, which can be clearly seen by a few that have toppled over through the years. When the winds blow, it's not unusual to hear a sudden crack and the subsequent crashing of something somewhere in the forest. When I discovered that Hurricane Henri was predicted to strike us with category four winds, I began to fret about what would happen if one of those trees fell on the house. My fears were intensified when I remembered that these homes were manufactured to withstand winds of a hundred and ten miles an hour. Fortunately, we have never had a blow of that magnitude, but similar homes in Florida have, and their destruction was catastrophic. I was filled with despair that the same thing would happen here. Several hours later I told myself that worry is an unproductive emotion, because there's absolutely nothing I can do about the impending storm, and took comfort that if a tree did fall upon the house, that I would be part of the pancake, and never know what hit me until I came to in heaven. Yes. Heaven. The next morning I was astounded to discover that there was some rain, heavy at times, but no wind, and no sign of damage whatsoever. Where Henri went to, I do not know, but thankful that he did not come to call. Later that day, I remembered reading about an old hotel that had the following message etched upon some prominent wall. Quote, I am an old man and have seen much trouble, most of which never happened. Unquote.

SPEAKER_00 25:19

It's a wrap. We did it. I want to thank everyone who is responsible for this inaugural production of Uncle Gary's Two Sense Journey, a production of Uncle Gary's Global Media. I am deeply humbled and grateful for all of you, our listeners and global family. Uncle Gary's Two Sense Journey was recorded and mixed at BrickArts Media with additional recordings at Manhattan Neighborhood Network. As your executive producer, I want to thank my Martastic production team and creative family, producer Ron Balkaris, co-host and writers Jim Conductor Jimmy McMilleski, and the late Benny Tate Wilkins. I also want to thank our writer Cleo E. Brown, production consultants and direction, Eduardo Ed Parada, and Elizabeth Downer Riker. Business Development Lee Simonson, Harley J. Spiller, and Israel Gomez. Sound engineers editing and mixing, Thomas Ladder and Ivan R. at Ivan Sound, Marketing, Photography, and Graphic Arts, Jonas Wang, Music and Sound Design, Epidemic Sound, and Pixabay. And music by Klanger, Donnie, James Scott, Toby Tranter, and Sniffer Dogs. Stay tuned, and we look forward to having our next Marfastic Journey when the next episode drops.