Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / John Clarence Stewart & Alex Newell Full Interview

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John Clarence Stewart & Alex Newell Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: That's the Farmer's Dog dot Com slash listen. Welcome to
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  Speaker 1: That's what this show is all about. I got two
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  Speaker 1: incredible guests. They're live in studio. Let me introduce them.
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  Speaker 1: First time meeting, but I feel like I know him
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  Speaker 1: because I've seen several episodes of this new series on NBC.
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  Speaker 1: My next two guests are live is studio. Like I
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  Speaker 1: stated from the Luke I'm just giving like one credit
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  Speaker 1: and attached to their names. From the Luke Cage and
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  Speaker 1: Netflix series. He plays Simon on the NBC midseason drama
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  Speaker 1: Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist, and from the Glee TV series. He
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  Speaker 1: plays mo on NBC's new mid season drama Yeah Okay
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  Speaker 1: mid season drama Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist. They are both talented entertainments,
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  Speaker 1: but they're also driven by their causes to create change.
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  Speaker 1: Alex Newell is a powerful force in the LGBT team
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  Speaker 1: community worldwide, and John Clarence Stewart is an advocate for
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  Speaker 1: the evolution of black and Brown man and the innocence
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  Speaker 1: and education of Black and Brown boys. Please is working
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  Speaker 1: the Money Making Conversation. Two of the stars of Zoe's
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  Speaker 1: Extraordinary Playlist that air Sunday night on NBC, John Clarence
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  Speaker 1: Stewart and Alex Newell. Yes, So how do I learn
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  Speaker 1: how to make money? Because I'm not I'm not broke.
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  Speaker 1: I already tell you about my bag, three of them
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  Speaker 1: from London. You're not just gonna go to Macy's and
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  Speaker 1: get that bad. You just keep going, you keep going.
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  Speaker 1: But getting on the plane, I know somebody, I don't somebody.
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  Speaker 1: I get all my as they say, my suspenders, they
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  Speaker 1: come from London, as you can. I love my clothes. London.
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  Speaker 1: It's one of my cities. Paris is another one. I said,
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  Speaker 1: if I ever had to do it all over again, team,
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  Speaker 1: I probably would live in Paris because I love New
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  Speaker 1: York and Paris reminds me of New York. It's fast,
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  Speaker 1: it's great food, it feels very community driven, and so
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  Speaker 1: I probably would have lived my life out in Paris. So,
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  Speaker 1: but I've lived my life out in the United States.
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  Speaker 1: I love it here all right. Living in Chicago. That's
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  Speaker 1: where I did Steve harvesh talk show, or we launched
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: it up there there for five years. I love the cold.
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  Speaker 1: Lived in Los Angeles for fifteen years, and I'm a Houston,
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  Speaker 1: Texas home board straight out of the field Ford. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: We're now based in the Atlanta doing this incredible money
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  Speaker 1: him earlier that Stephen a Smith businessman and everything's good.
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  Speaker 1: So so when I bring in the inviduals on the show,
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  Speaker 1: then they I love about both you guys as your
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: dynamically different individuals, but you're achieving the same success changing
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the world, and you're you're from an entertainment perfective the show.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Let's let's talk about the show. Zoe's extraordinary played this
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  Speaker 1: which Arizon NBC. I've seen the first three episodes and
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  Speaker 1: simon your character, you know, um, you know with which
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  Speaker 1: I love about it. I'm gonna tell you a little
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: bit back by me. I'm an old school guy. I love.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: I grew up watching the Oklahoma Dar's Day. I love
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: to death. These are so. I'm a big musical guy
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  Speaker 1: at heart. You know. In little school, I played this
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: saxophone for like Parendet, So I have a music background.
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  Speaker 1: Now I can't sing. My daughter is taking singing lessons.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know where she got that from. She said, Dad,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna take singing less though. Okay, she went and
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  Speaker 1: took a singing lesson. The guy said come back. I said, okay,
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  Speaker 1: that's good. He said, come on, come back so that
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  Speaker 1: my daughter beside my daughter. So but if you guys,
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  Speaker 1: I have to say professional singers. So starting with you,
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  Speaker 1: John uh leading that you have done a lot of
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  Speaker 1: physical activity, a lot of action shows. How did you
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  Speaker 1: get involved with this series? Um? I got involved with
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  Speaker 1: the series through Jane, she plays lead. We worked on
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  Speaker 1: the show together called what If in the cast at
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  Speaker 1: that time, we were all out having drinks one night
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  Speaker 1: and um, she brought up this show that she was
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  Speaker 1: working on and she said that they were looking for
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  Speaker 1: a guy to play this role. And then a friend
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  Speaker 1: of ours said, John, do you say? And I said yeah.
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  Speaker 1: She said you sing? I said yeah, and then she
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  Speaker 1: wrote something on her phone. And then the next day
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  Speaker 1: my agent reached out to me. It was like, John,
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  Speaker 1: do you sing? I said, yeah, Singing is not on
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  Speaker 1: your resume. I mean, it's just it's just not at
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  Speaker 1: the very top. Um. And so it's really because I'm
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  Speaker 1: a farmer actor. So I know you put all those
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  Speaker 1: skills down the Spanish you know, I can psycho motorcycle
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  Speaker 1: and did sing it. It's down singing. I sing it
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  Speaker 1: on the resume. UM, because I've done a few I've
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  Speaker 1: done a musical or two. UM, not in a grand scale.
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  Speaker 1: I haven't done Broadway. UM. I did a show called
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  Speaker 1: Choired Boy here in Atlanta back in the day. UM.
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  Speaker 1: But UH at that time, my agent sent me the script.
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  Speaker 1: And when my agent sent me the script, I read
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  Speaker 1: the pilot and it moved me. UM. I lost my
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  Speaker 1: pops thirteen years ago, and so for me, the concept
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  Speaker 1: of the show UM Zoe played by Jane being able
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  Speaker 1: to hear people's heart song and know what they're emotionally
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  Speaker 1: going through UM really connected with me. Uh and Simon
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  Speaker 1: going through this grieving process is something that I feel
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  Speaker 1: is so unique and so specific and something that I
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  Speaker 1: could bring something to. It's something that black men, black boys, UM,
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  Speaker 1: black and brown like men in general, everyone needs to
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  Speaker 1: have more examples of people giving themselves permission to feel
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  Speaker 1: and UM with this, with this construct, you know, there
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  Speaker 1: is no mask. You know what I'm saying, And so
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  Speaker 1: much of what we do in the world is where
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  Speaker 1: masks UM and Austin brilliantly created this, this show where
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  Speaker 1: we're getting to the heart of everyone, which is the
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  Speaker 1: thing that connects us all I think the emotional world true.
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna just let you know that I am thoroughly
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  Speaker 1: impressed with the script. At first what I got into
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: the series. Initially I went okay, but after the third episode,
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  Speaker 1: I am, I want to see four. I want to
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  Speaker 1: see you just wait. I I just blown away. And
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  Speaker 1: then Alex the next door neighbor who plays the music
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  Speaker 1: loud every episode you have a different hashtag of every scene.
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  Speaker 1: I have a different when I go through five or
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  Speaker 1: six weeks. And the DJ, the eccentric, eclectic loudmouth who
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  Speaker 1: has But how I got onto the show was, um,
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  Speaker 1: I come from Glee and so with that, the casting
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  Speaker 1: director of Glee UM pitched me for this show and um,
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  Speaker 1: I had an audition for it, and then it got
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: canceled and then I went straight to test and then
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I read the script and I was just like, oh
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  Speaker 1: my god, this is me because it was all about
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  Speaker 1: what my love of music is. And I've been singing
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  Speaker 1: since I was two years old. Um, and in Boston,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: well Boston, Alabama. My mom and my daddy from Alabama.
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  Speaker 1: And so when my grandfather, my grandfather, my father died
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: when I was six, my mother used to shipped me
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to Alabama each summer, so I really learned my roots.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Um and uh a spirit culture shot going from Boston
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: to the Cottondale, Alabama. It Cottondalne, not Stee and in
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the whole waffle house. But UM, my love of music.
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  Speaker 1: I've grown up in church and doing Broadway and being
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: a recording artist. It really spoke to that side of me,
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  Speaker 1: especially after Glee ended. Now, you're interesting thing about that.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I saw a video I tried to do even death.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I try to learn more about the individuals who I
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: talked to. Like in one interview, you listed Jane as
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: your friend, you know, as a relationship that started on
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  Speaker 1: the show. Talk about that. You said you knew her
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: from another show and you guys were out and then
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: she told you about the series. And I always talk
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: about relationships. How did I did your relationship friendship with her?
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Jane being Lee character on the show's always extraordinary playlist
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: and Alex your characters more more On the shower, they
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: collected the outlandish over the top DJ. How did their
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: relationship move off the off the I guess the screen
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: into real life. I guess it started off screen before
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: it went to screen. I mean when we were in Canada,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: we spent more time together outside of the show than
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: we did on the show because we don't spend a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: lot of time with each other working all the time
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: and we aren't in the same scenes all the time.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And I think that's how we cultivated, uh working friendship.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: I think I've had so many dinners outside of the
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: show with just Jane and just talking and getting to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: know each other, and it makes everything on screen that
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: much better authentic. Yeah, and because I'm hanging out with
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: my friend and we're just saying lines. And that's what
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: I take away. John. I look at you. You play
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: kind of semi love interest because she doesn't no no,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: no no to come on night. And I know you,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: I know you're the referee. You know she goes from
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: you know Simon too, it Max right there, you know,
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, let's let's let's talk about that
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: because you don't because you have a fiancee on the show,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: so you know this is the semi you know, you're
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: right right, So you don't really know what's going on,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: but Mo kind of knows what's going on here. So
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: so you're an innocent bystander there because like I said,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: let's let's let's set up the series correctly. Okay, because
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Zoey's character, she goes in for an exam, I won't
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: give it a serious away, and out of the exam,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: she's she's struck with the ability to be able to
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  Speaker 1: hear people's songs that are affecting the emotionally at that moment.
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  Speaker 1: They can break out in the dance, They can break
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: out into a solo, the whole coffee shop can just
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: start dancing, the whole street can just break out into
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a whole number. And but nobody's seeing it but her,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: and when they stopped, they just start walking off. And
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: so so she's really caught up in that moment. And
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: so so that's really important when you once you're buy
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: into that, you see it's important because the way her
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: family dynamic is structure with her father, his disability, her mom,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and it established lanes of communication, but it also established
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: the relationship she starts with mo and then when he
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: starts breaking out just in a solo at the death,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: that that builds the relationship there. And so with that
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: being said, John, how does that play out for you?
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Because you know your your plan a character you don't
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: know what's happening, and you just being you. But but
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you you kind of cold. Do you are you sensing
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: any type of emotional connection other than work or she
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: relates to your sorrow with your dad passing in the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: series or what I think the way that comes to
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: mind is intimacy, And I think it's an intimacy is
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: sometimes born over a long period of time and sometimes
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: born in a moment um when people when someone has
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: an experience that's very unique, like losing someone and being
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: in the process of losing someone or having lost someone themselves,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: there's a there's It's like being in a dome and
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: and no one else is in the dome but you, Um,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: no one else is. Life is different but yours. And
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: then when Zoe um confides and when Zolwey says what's
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: going on with her father, Um Simon feels like there's
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: someone else in the dome with him, right though he
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: has a fiance, She's never lost any one. And that's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: a very specific kind of uh. And it was suddenly
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: said there, you know, like because when you meet the fiance,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: she mentioned the word Weddy, And then all of a sudden,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: that little couple of sentences that you have would make
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: it feels like that relationship is kind of shaky. That
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: was good writing right there. It looks you know, it
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: was like it was like the door was open. Oh
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: maybe maybe she might be sliding over the Zoey might
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: have a shot. And because I thought Zoe heard that
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: in the series, because you go okay, because remember she
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: you know, she had the two ice cream cups and
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: she threw them in the trash when she realized that
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: she was a fool for thinking there was an option
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: here because it wasn't an option. She's overthought the situation.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Then she runs to dear friend Mo over there, who
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: kind of trying to figure out what's going on with
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  Speaker 1: T E R dot Ai. Why do you believe her? Um?
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: I think Mo at first thought this was just like
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: a fun game gene, like a fun game like come here,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: crazy white girl, Like, oh, I'm really high, and this
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: is funny to me. But I think and then as
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: it grows, you learn that everything that Zoe is going
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: through and it's saying telling Mo is very true. Like
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: it's not like she's making things up. She's like hearing
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: these songs and then it's correlating to the person, and
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: so you can't help but believe her. And I think
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: that Mo knows that without Mo, Zoe would be very
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: lost in all of it, because there is she Zoe
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: doesn't have a relationship with music, so she doesn't know
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: what which is actually funny. Yeah, you know, because she
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: claims she screams at you about you playing loud. Yeah,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: but she doesn't know anything about it, especially when she
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: said that she's giving his kids. You see people singing
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: wasted on a wasted and say that I do. That
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: should be the blessing should have been passed. It should
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: have been not a tone deaf person. Let's talk about Glee,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: because Glee was a groundbreaker. Yeah, I watched Glee. I'm
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: watching Zoe. I will tell you I love Zoe, enjoyed Glee,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and I'm gonna tell you why the characters have so
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: much pain and then you have Uh. It was Lauren Graham.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: She from The Gilmore Girls, a character you get as
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: exposed and Mary's Team Mary. She plays the mom James's
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: mom on the show. If the father, he's ah, here's
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a neural illness where he can't speak. Along the way,
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: he starts to communicate much much better in the series.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: And that's why this music plays as such a vital role,
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: because it forces people who you thought you had no
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: way of communicating the understanding them and guiding them through
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: the right paths to you mostly get the right on
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the right path. That's why falling in love with this series,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: because you know you can you know because let's let's
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: put this way, if you just did to show at
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the office, it'll be a good show. Is when you
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: go to her family, when you go to her her
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: mom and um, you know, you know, I've dealt with
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: my mom passing away. You knew what best people get older,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: they never passed away away or you want them to
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: pass away because they physically, you know, they diminished physically,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: and so and knowing that, I've seen how how that
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: affects people. And then in this situation that affects her
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: mom and even though she's in denial, and I think
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: that is really important, it's very relatable. I think that
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: anybody who would watch the show. The music is just
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: a bonus, But the storyteller is amazing. So each one
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: you can talk about that we saw with you John,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: they move with dialex because the storyteller, that's that's such
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: a beautiful story you guys are telling every Sunday night
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: on NBC. Absolutely, And you know the credit for that
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: is that's Austin and that's the that's the creator of
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: the show. And and he, I mean, the show is
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: based on his life and and I think there's a
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: there's a specificity and an authenticity to the story because
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: it's coming from that soul space and you can't you
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: can't mimic that. You can't, um, you can't conjure that up.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: It's just it's there or it's not. And when something
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: is so specific, I think it makes it universal, UM,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: And it hits the vein or the cord or the nerve,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: and I think that's what you feel. Yeah, that's that.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: That's the same way that UM. That's the way that
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: like looking at my mother right after my father passed away, UM,
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: looking at the way that she is her life is
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: being how she's navigated things, how she's held us together,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: how she's tried to maintain a sense of normalcy and
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: then finding a new normal. You know, it's all of
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: those things that's important because it happens with Mary's character.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: It's it is accepting the responsibility that she can't and
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: let go and she can't ask for help and not
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: feel like she's diminished her responsibilities. And there's a very
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: key moment in episode three that that plays out that
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: definitely uh, such such the course of that relationship in
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: a very positive direction, because it was spirer spiring down
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: here and in a horribly bad way for the family dynamic,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: you know. And I, like you said, there's some some scenes,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: some episodes coming up there I'm gonna get even more
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: excited about in the future, so so forth. So Mo,
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: that's your character, that Alex that you play. You play
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the character Mo. The DJ tell us about when somebody
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: gives you a character like that to play, do you do?
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Do you do you limit what you can do with it?
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Or you say or you go to the producers and say, okay,
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: what do you what do you want? What do you
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: want me to give you with this character? I think
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: it's a combination of both. I always want to be like,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: what do you need from me? After I give them
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: what I can give them, and then change whatever they
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: want depending on the scenario or the topic. I think, Um,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: when I first had a meeting after the show got
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: picked up, Um, it was so we have this confident
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: character that's very confident. Where is the flaw? Where is
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: the humanistic quality? Where is the realism? How do we
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: make this character more relatable other than just being at
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: ten and confident all the time. And I gave them
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: a plethora of ideas of things about where my flaws
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: personally come in about being confident all the time, but
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: I mean I am when I'm handing handed a character
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: that is so larger than life. It's it's always a challenge,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: mainly because it's so hard to be at a ten
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: a majority of the time and not be like a
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: trope or a Jimminy cricket or a magical negro. So
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: it's it's nice to like go in with the expectation
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: of I can do all of that, but I would
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: like more than that, and I and what are the
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: ways that we can get there? We do an interesting
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: thing about your character. We're both of you guys character
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: characters because they're they're distinctively different, but they're play important
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: roles in the series. One one is emotionally guiding. That's
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: your character sign mostly guiding potentially James character Zoe into
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: a direction where she doesn't even know she's just trying
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: to find us because she's in denial with another lead
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: actor on the show, one of my favorite guys from
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the Pitch Perfect series. When I saw him, well, I
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: like this show because I really like it. He's a
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: very talented guy as well as an outstanding singer. And
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: then and then you have your character mode where you're
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: trying to figure it out too. Girl, make a decision,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: you know over here this is not And then and
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: then this third episode third, the episode three ended with
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: guess his team Simon? Now, you know, because of the
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: fact that you're playing a referee. And then when I
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: look at your characters, it's always on ten. But he's
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: always on ten. But because you're never right all the time,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: you know. So that's your flaw. You know, you give
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: at information that means the right information. So that's a flaw.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: When you walked in the room talking about got these
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: three ideas, and all three of them are crazy. Now
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I made any sense, especially number three? I thought, what
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: she think a number three? Well? And so these are they?
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: I can't give away the series. I'm just like, I'm
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: talking to Eric, and I gotta talk to Eric. So everybody,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I gotta look at that episode three to find out
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: what number three years. I'm gonna find out what team
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Simon is. I got who's the other dude? She pitch perfect? Guy?
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Who's she talking about? That? That's right on Sunday night
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: us Zoey's starting their playlist. It's an incredible serious starting
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: two of my friends here to me. We keep elevating. Yeah,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: good friends. Friends, you know, I can't wait. Family, get
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: your bags. We're not getting that. We're not getting like
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: that produce. It will beat me up. So let's talk
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: about I started the show talking about what you guys
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: do off you know, I think in your real world,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: you know, and that committed effort. I'm a passion guy,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: you know. I always feel I always pay it forward. Uh.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I'm being at for I'm being honored at my school
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: this Sunday at halftime because making a big endowment where
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: every year you know, it's uh, three African American students
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: with scholarships, uh, and the and the steam programs forever.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: You know, it's it's set up that way. I died
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: and they through a lot of dirt in front of
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: on my face, and that's still be giving with these
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: three scholarships. And so that's part of the process. That's
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: one of the things I do. H B c U.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: You know, we set up last year we will registered
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: students on the spot. Gave way almost four million dollars
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: and scholarships. So when I hear individuals who we know,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: how busy each one of your lives are, but still
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: stop pumped the brakes and go, you know something, I
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: gotta do more. What drives you, John and your cause
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: or causes? Well, I think for me, what drives me
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: is the things that have been struggles in my own life, sir,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: um and really lizing that I want to be able
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: to give boys the thing that I didn't have. Um,
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: And you're Atlanta War. Yeah. And my father was also,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: he was steeped in the community. I mean, he started
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: up a chapter of the a CP in Gwinnette County. Um,
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: and my mother still runs it and he she works
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: at Emory right now. Um. But growing up, I think
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: that I didn't have There wasn't a focus on emotional
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: intelligence growing up as a young black boy and as
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: a black man. I think a lot of my process,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: through going to therapy and different things like that, has
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: been acquiring the vocabulary for my inner world and learning
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: how to make changes that are sustainable in my life.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of boys don't have permission
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: to do that because there's this idea of manhood that
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: they're trying to hold up, which means they sacrifice parts
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: themselves along the way, and they just a lot of
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: times they just need to know it's okay. They just
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: need to see someone experiencing a thing that they feel
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: and see that, oh, it's possible to do that human.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not less of a man. That's which is awesome. Now, Alex,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: when you look at your life, I mentioned, uh, but
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: also I'm a cancer survivor and when I read about you,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: you're involved with the American Cancer Society. What connects you
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: with the American Cancer So my father died of cancer
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: when I was six, and so it's just always been
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: a part of my life. I just um recently lost
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: my best friend's mother to cancer at the beginning of
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the year um and the pastor of my church died
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: of cancer. My best friend's mother died of cancer right
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: around the same time as my father died. And it's
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: just always been this luminous fear of what cancer is.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: And I never wanted to have that fear followed me
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: the rest of my life. So I got very involved
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: in at all. When you say fear, what do you
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: mean when you say fear? The fear of just what
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: cancer is and just being so scared of it rather
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: than trying to beat it. It is. But I always
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: tell people when I was informed I had cancer. You
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: know it. You know it's immediately that we're death. I'm
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: gonnation your conversation because I don't you know here about
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: You're not gonna terned about survivor you're just worried about it.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: That's a finance moment in your life. And I tell
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: people all the time, you know, just be prepared, live
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: your life. That's why I'm telling them. That's why I
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: love talking to you too, because you know, I go
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: through the resume. I got the success as an entertainer,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: like secs entrepreneur. I was like, to dig deeper and
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: what are you doing? What's the balanced part of your life?
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: And you guys have a balanced life and so and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: we know we're all gonna go. And so when it happens,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: how do you feel? And I tell everybody when it was.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: When the doctor announced it to me, I was shocked,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: but you know I didn't I didn't tell my family
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: and I just I just I just took it all in.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: And when I when I finally took it all in,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: I was comfortable if this was it. I was comfortable
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: because I know what life I had laid. I knew
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the type of people I affected. You know, I drunk
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: all the water. You know, you gave me a glass
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: of ward. I dropped it. I didn't leave no water.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: You're trying to get drink after me and when we drinking, okay,
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and so and that's why I tell people to live
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: your life and so so I just wanted to you know,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: you here to promote the show, but I wanted to
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: tell you both, don't stop, you know, don't stop. Don't
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: they're draining you know, squeeze it and live the life
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and be you. And it's important and and it's always
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: great to have when I have to opposite individuals who
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: are doing doing things from different perspectives but achieving the
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: same goals. And that's changing this world because we need
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: so much help. And you don't have to put names
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: on who's altering the cause of it, because it's sometimes
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: it's so it's so organic. There's somebody right next to
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: you that needs that support. And so don't change. Don't change, really,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: don't change. And you're not family yet. So you know,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: that was a good speech. I gave y'all enough to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: get a bag. I can tell you that. But you
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: know how didn't look frozen fingers? She getting up. You
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: know okay, I got my two other stars. My man
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: job Alex Well, we're just out here. I still want
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: my bag. I'm just if you because your hand styles
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: was amazing. Thank you. But you didn't change it. But
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: you didn't change your house stout in this interview if
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: you would have changed your house now, because you change
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: it every episode, you challenge it every scene on that show.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: You know that, right, Thank you very much. I know that.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I know that. Okay, cool, so easy. I got two
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: of the stars. Guess what. A big time in the community,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: a big time on the screen every Sunday. Check it out.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I will be watching it. It's my show. It's a
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: show that makes me feel good, makes me think about
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: my life, also gives me values that guess what, It's
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: gonna be all good. Thank you this Money Making Conversations.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: You want to hear more money making conversations, go to
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations dot com. I'm your host with Sean McDonald.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Keep listening. Everybody in this season of Giving Cools has
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