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Entrepreneur: Shark Tank winner and multi-million-dollar Sea Moss entrepreneur Alexiou Gibson overcame 500 lbs. weight gain. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. I am Rashwan McDonald, the host
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: of Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: stop reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: their companies, and speak with nod profits who are making
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald, our host
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a weekly and money Making Conversation Master Class show. The
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: interviews and information is that this show provides off for everyone.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: start living your own. My guest is the founder of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the Universe Soul Circus, an African American man who had
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a vision of creating a circus with a large percentage
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of people of color performing. Is based in Atlanta, Georgia.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Please he's working with the Money Making Conversation Masterclass. Mister
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Cedric Walker. How you doing, Cedric? Hey, Sean, I are
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you and thank you a lot? This opportunity, you know,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: it's great. First of all taking the time to come
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to my show. I know you're traveling around the world
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: and around the country of the United States. What city
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: are you in right now? That's in New Orleans, Louisiana. Wow,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: that's a good Cajun food. Good food down there that
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: if everybody wants to Now you know you're traveling man,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: and I traveled Like when I was ninety four, I
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: wanted to be a stand up comedian. I want to
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: a tease said. I thought I was gonna be the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: next Richard Pride. I thought I would be next Adye Murphy.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Now in eighteen ninety four, you had an idea about
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: a circus. How can that happen? Please help explain it
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: to my audience, because it sounds incredible to me. A
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: vision will come to you like that. Yes, So we
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: were doing gospel plays. We actually had a play. I
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: was working on a play called Wicked Ways and with
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Michael Matthews out of Detroit, and Wicked Ways was about
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of the challenges that our community faces. It
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: dealt with It dealt with kids growing up in the
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: inner city and getting into gangs. It dealt with fathers
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: raised and step signs as teenagers it dealt with professional
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: wives and mechanic husbands. It just dealt with a lot
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: of the challenges that our community faces. And I saw
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: kids in the theater. I saw whole families, and it
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: looked like I was in Pittsburgh at the Benadum Theater,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and it looked like I saw a father, mother, granddaughter, grandchild.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: And I asked the play right, I said, man, this
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: is a gospel play. I know it's clean. I asked Mike,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and he said, it's because theater is the oldest form
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: of entertainment and went all the way back to be
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: or not to be. You could look on that stage,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: on the Shakespearean plays and see yourself, and our community
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: is getting a chance to look at itself do these plays.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: So that triggered the idea to create something that, because
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: we were very out entertainment was socially. It was comedy,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: It was R and B, it was jazz, it was
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: you know, hip hop, right, it was dance. It was
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: kind of a mixed bag of everything. And I said,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: how do we I got my team and I said,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: how do we create something that touches everybody? So I
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: went to the library and every day eight I worked.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I worked, made part of my job reading about black
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: entertainment from the turn of the century. And what I
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: found was we trained animals in the varve billion days
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: black people trained horses and dogs and and so I
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: shared that with my team and and the idea was
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: from that the circus germinade. But it was all having
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: something for every generation of our family, something where father, mother, daughter,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: granddaughter and grandson could all sit on the same beat
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: bent and enjoy each other, enjoying the shop. So that's
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: that's what started that, you know, you know when I
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: went because I know Michael, Michael Matthews is a great
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: guy and uh my many days of being under Steve
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Harror morning. So we promoted a lot of his plays.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: We probably bopped here's a couple of times in a
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: good way. And so when I talk about the circus,
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you know, you did all this research, But it was
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the naysayers out there, right, c oh man. My investors
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: all were in promably, both both black and white. I
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: had fun in Bundy guys, and they all just said me,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: you are correct, Let well not go circus. Wow, you
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: know that was it just nobody believed. So I I,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: you know, I did. I felt it. I don't know
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: where and what, but thede the course. But it was
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: challenging because we get stereotype, you know, we get stereotype
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: on technology, we get stereotype on the type of entertainment
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: of movies that we want to see. And also that
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: means the world can stereotype of. So I commend you
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: in pushing back and say, look, I feel that within
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: my gut and my research, this could work. And then
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: thirty years later, because you're celebrating your thirtieth year of
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Universal Circus Zoul, I don't know if I'm gonna do
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: dog Conneia's version or we're going with the Rishaw version,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: but either way it got a lot of soul than
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: the brother. And so the name, I'm sure you have
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: research when you did the name as well, correct Universal. Yeah, yeah,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the original name was Universal. I was back and forth
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: with my team Universal. I wanted you Soul from the beginning.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: So when we got to l A, Universal Studio sent
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: us a cease and desist on Universal big top circuits.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: So we were we asked them back, well, we want
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to use Universe Soul, which was my original idea to use,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: and they said absolutely, yeah, Well and sad. You look
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: around at the daff going told you now you gotta
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: be out here looking bad because you had to follow
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: my original idea, we wouldn't even be it. Now. This
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: is the good part of it, you know, because we
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: jumped a little bit. We had the idea, we got
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the name. But you were traveling. How did you you
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: had the nay sayers about the whole concept centric and
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: how did you get to acts originally? How did you
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: start putting the circus together?
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Well?
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: We we you know, when I wanted to do circus,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: and part of my research was that's you know, circus
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs traveled the world and I couldn't wait to travel
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the work it would have. It was going to be
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: a great experience. But that's what it took to do Circus.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: But I do want to say that we started in
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four in Atlanta, and initially it was an
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: effort to the initial concept and vision for it was
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: to uplift and celebrate the positive achievements and cultural contributions
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: of African Americans through a family attraction. And so that
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: was that was the you know, the impetus for what
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: people are seeing, and that still remains in the show.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: What you saw, it's that feeling that they get once
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: they come under that big time. It's that soul that
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: we put in it that that didn'tentiate us. But yeah,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I went around the world, and it was challenging to
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: look for talent. But I saw it now. I said,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you know our audience, you know, we can't just give
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: them playing food. Now, gotta have that spice that I
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: can't I got it pretty real people, you know, black people.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I can't have a clothes line for a haigh wire
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: or magic you know. So uh So, No, I went
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: around the world and and just looked for and and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: and it was amazing how many black performance circus performers
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: were doing phenomenal things that were out there. A lot
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: of manure uh in right here in America. The King
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Charles True playing basketball on unicycles, just stuff that came
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: out of the hood came out and basketball on unicycles
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  Speaker 1: was the only thing. We were the only ones that did.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: So you had so many. Originally there was a girl
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: named Pamela Pamela Hernandez. Pamela was an African American from
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: la but she was one of the most respected air lists.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: She would she was on Ranglin Brothers. But she'd be
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: in those arenas, but thirty forty feet in the air
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: doing trick. No, not under her, her and her partner.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: And when when when I started listing the name the
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: acts that I wanted to bring the rest, and they
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: were black, and the rest of the industry, the whites,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the Europeans, everybody in the industry knew and respected these
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: black artists to the hides and oh, Pamela's gonna be there.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be there. King Charles is gonna be there.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna beat it. Wow. So it was amazing the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: quality of black entertainment even back then in circus art.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: We know it's really important as we tell this story,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and thank you for allowing me to ask these questions,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: because I think the origin story or universe soul is
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: as important as what's happening now. Because in my life,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: I first was introduced to your circus in two thousand
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: and five. I was managing Steve Harvey and we was
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: on WBLS in New York City and that circus when
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I went into the first time, I didn't know what
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: to think, you know, I went in there with curiosity,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: but I walked away inspired because it was a circus
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: by us for us, that was the first thing that
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: really pushed me to positivity. And so I'm sure over
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: the years they have been different versions of the circus
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: as you go, because the circus I saw in two
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: thousand and five had an elephant, and the circus I
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: saw this past weekid recently didn't have an elephant or
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: any animals at the time. I think it was a
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: lion too that I saw at the time of two.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: So talk about the trans position and the vision of
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the circus over the years. So you know, just like
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's said, you have to keep your eye on
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: where the ball is going, not where the ball is.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: We try to and entertainment is a form, is an
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: art form that we'll society forward. So we try to
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: inspire that new direction and wherever it takes us. And
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: it's kind of more organic. It's just a platform for
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: young people to express new ideas through their their their artistry.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: So I mean, we've kind of it was challenging with
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: you know, to even think about or they to venture
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: into the show without the animals, but we realized how
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the laws were changing, you know, the people were changing,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: and we no longer could carry the animals from state
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to state. Some state could, some states wouldn't. But but
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: but what we what we found out is that our
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: cultural artistry, our who we are and how much fun
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: we can have, and that that the family unit where
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: you're all we're all grandmother again, grandmother, father doing that, son,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: all enjoying each other, h enjoying the show. We laid
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: into that, how do we be authentically us in a
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: performance that is for everybody at the same time and
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: and shares our culture. So a lot of the Afro
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Beach music, a lot of the music you've heard in
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: the show is kind of new ending music. A lot
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: of the new dance styles that American hip hop has
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: inspired around the world, whether they inspired it in China
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: or Africa, it came from our streets, came from America,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: and it inspired the world. And so we we've incorporated
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of that inspiration. But just that NonStop energy
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: that is germane to our culture and our celebration sort
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: of like a family reunion under the big time. So
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: we just linked into our story and we continue to
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: do that as it involves. Let's speak of Cedric Walker,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: the founder of a Universal Circus an inspirational voice in
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: our community because he had a vision, a vision he
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: with a lot of other people did deny. He did
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: his research, he walked past the there and thirty years
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: later he celebrating the vision that we all can be
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: entertained by because the audience I saw was very diverse,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: and not by accident, because I saw it in the
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: area of Atlanta, Georgia, which is the Atlanticxation, which is
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: a mixed race, very upproparately mobile area of Atlanta, Georgia,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: and the audience not over that. I knew it was
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: mixed race because the friends of mine as they went
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: to the show before me with wow, I didn't expect
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: it to be that diverse. Is that the goal now
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: or it just happens?
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Please don't go anywhere, We'll be right back with more
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan MacDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
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• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Found all is to stay authentically black, period and how
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: will we do that? That is what transcends culture globally
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: being able to technically who you are. So you know,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: we don't have a direction again except for the origin
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: of our show to uplift and celebrate the positive achievements
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: and cultural contributions of African American and student family entertainment.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: So out you know, we're not going after any specific
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: arnory right run after the world. Awesome and thank you
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: for saying that. Now let's talk about these acts. The
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: bottom line is the acts. Now, this Chinese trap piece
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: act that you got the dazz with. My daughter, you know,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: she's a I'm gonna be honest with you, she's one
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: of those people who came in there with doubts Cedric
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: because she's a Circus are late. You know, she peaks
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: circuts are late. She said, Dad, are you sure? I said, hey, hey,
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: these are my people. Now my boy Sedric, they go
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: take care of it. When she left my brother. She
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: is a one hundred percent universal fan. Okay, so know that.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: But that trapeze act that put on it, she says,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: that's better than anything she's ever saw anywhere, and she's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: seen by fifteen of those shows. So talk about that
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: trap that the Chinese trapeze act, right, So we had
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the we have to guess the grace and blessings of
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: driving scouts around the world, young scouts that are always
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: looking for what's new in different countries. And our scout
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: found this troop in a in their school, performing and
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: hadn't been out of the country yet, but had one
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: gold in every competition in China. And there's no fifteen
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: sixteen people flying through the air and no trapeze act
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: in the world. So I said, I have to have
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: that act. And so when the price tag uh with
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the price yeah, the guy said it, we buys that.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: He's crazy, and we bought as we wanted because that's
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: what circus is all about. It's just bringing unbelievable stuff
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: to the audience. Well, you know, the difference that really
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: amazed me was a distance between them swinging it. I
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: was stunned by that distance. I was like, wow, I've
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: never seen this athleticism area or in leather sism like this.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: So so again this is one thing. Another thing that
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: dazzled me, and a lot of things dazzled me. By
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: the way, Cedric the the was the I think they
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the couple that was on the roller skates. Oh yeah,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: from Cuba as the Alcabana Knights roller stating thing Cedria.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: That right there, the g fource of them spinning. I
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: was I was taken aback, I was taking it back there.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: What is the training like when you get a couple
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: like that, because it's danger involved, right, So everything you
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: see under the big tip, we carriated it. It's it's
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: been four or five years before it even hits out
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: stage and it could have been in school, in their schools.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: We work with schools all over the world. We work
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: with schools in Ethiopia and Cuba and South America. We
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: work with schools in China, and we identify what we
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: want and depends on what level of of of training
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: they have achieved and what countries they come from, we
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: bring we send. We send trainers to Ethiopia, we send
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: trainers to West Africa, we send trainers UH to South America,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: or we bring the performers here, send them to training centers.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Here's sort of UH. They get out of what you
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: would consider maybe high school or entry level, and then
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: we take them to that doctorate level in terms of
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: really putting the icing on the cake in terms of performance,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: so that skating act came from two schools. There was
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: a dance school and Cuba where a sort of young
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: lady and acrobatic school, and they were combined and they
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: spent a few years training in Cuba. Then we brought
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: them here in Sally to Las Vegas to elevate their training.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Then we got them under the Big Top and created
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: a theme, the whole Cuban theme around them. So whatever
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: you see, I mean, we spent a good five years
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: of investment at about forty to fifty grand a year
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: just training these extents. You see our idea for our
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: artists work, and some of them we don't have to
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: train like the Caribbean. Right. The whole culture is you
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: know all about To me, that's one of the greatest
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: acts on our show, that their culture is designed to uh.
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: They you look at their faces in this smiling and
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: that the happiest they performed, and they're going under fire
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: four or five rows. And you know, I mean, you know,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: the culture in terms of the costuming the characters, Uh,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: there's still well, everything means something, nothing is by chance,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: nothing is just for flamboyancy on your eyes. It all
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: traces back to that culture in some meaningful way. So
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: everything is deep rooted that that you saw, well, you
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: know the amazing thing. Like I said, I just want
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: to share everybody my thoughts, my adventure. Go there and
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: see if the show is over two hours long. It's
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: not a thirty minute show. An hour show hour that
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: it starts on time. Let me tell you all this,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: universul Circus starts on time. Okay, because of the fact
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: that a lot of people don't believe that because they
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: come in late. Okay, its circus is professionally run. Not
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: saying it wasn't, but people need understand you can miss
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: out on some great entertainment if you don't arrival time
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: because Universal Soul Circus starts all time. Now, let's talk
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: about the acts from Ethiopia, because I noticed, you know,
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at I'm exam I'm a little producer to
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Centric and there was a lot of acts from Ethiopia.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: Tell us about that. So etheo Opia is the leading world.
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: They're leading the world and producing and providing black circus
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: or swampers. Wow, all over Europe, all over we had
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the we have We're very proud that we got into
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Ethiopia and the maybe nineties ninety six, ninety seven ninety
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: eight and started working with those circus schools and we
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: were the first to bring an Ethiopian act out of
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Ethiopia to US circus touring in America. They had I
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: think that they had schools that were set up in
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Ethiopia mainly to train kids. It was a program that
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: were and developed that was developed by some European circuit
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: well European circus entrepreneurs, and the idea was to help
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the government keep the kids off the street. So they
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: were training them circus arts and it was cool. It
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: was a good idea, but the performers showed such great
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: enthusiasm and capacity until when I went there, I was
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: totally blown away at the quality of of of some
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: and the shows were all about messages and they had
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: full circus shows that were you know, teaching kids about
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: age or teaching kids about you know, working. They taught
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: They had a lot of the But we we were
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: one of one of the first, and we've set invested
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: a lot of money in training in Ethiopia because the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: kids show so much promise. Uh so we're very proud
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: of the work that they've done. We sponsor a big
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: festival there or one of the sponsors of the festival
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: they have, but there's some great We have a duo
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: aerial act that I've never seen and then thirty years
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: I've seen just about everything, but that duo, those two
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: girls up in the air. You saw them, they were
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: They moved at a speed that no other dual aerial
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: act will move at. I think even dare to move
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: that fast, changing all those positions, thirty feet off the
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: ground with no no net net no, And you know,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: I want describe in detail, but please go. What he's
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: saying is are just selling the significance of what they're
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: doing because it's impressive. And they were doing some things
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: our tear you said, I was going, is she about
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to do that? Really? Okay? Now these sisters or they
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: were their twins, No, no, they work together. They come
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: out of the school. We have in the performance. We
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: have the hoop diving act, we have the girls in
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: aerial act, and we have the three acts the Tea
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: Board and those are the three best strongest schools in Ethiopia.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: We have their top acts. So those are the three
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: of the top acts from the strongest trainers and producers
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and Atholpia and we were graced with that and blessed
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: because we were one of the early pondeers and helping
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: them with training and programming. Wow, beautiful as we go.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Like I said, it's nineteen eighty four. Ye division, we're
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: sitting here now thirty years later. What's on the horizon?
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, our culture is so rich and it deserves
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: so much and we've got it. There's a lot we
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: have to do. I think, you know, family and it
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: just didn't formally attraction industry. Ice shows that we have
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: yet to challenge. I mean there's a Bourbon street while
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: we have the street. I mean, there's just so much
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: that's that's what. It has to be authentic and it
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: has to be created authentically. But I have a lot
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: of ideas. I have ideas that should live way past me,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: and I have a lot of challenges. This at the
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: tip of the iceberg with my friend that the fact
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: you allowed me to take time and your business schedule
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: because you run in a circus. Okay, I'm just running
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: a little small business with animals and chappeeside and all
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: kinds of human beings run around here trying to understand
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: what life is. You're the entertaining business. That's where you started.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: You had the old run of animals, the whole Big
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: Top theme. You you did the gospel plays which are
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: very familiar with. But the bottom line said you just
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: wanted to do family entertainment. Correct. Yeah, no, I thought
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: it was the need for it, you know, and I
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: saw it and we needed this. We need something that
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: uplifts our families and joins us together. It joins the generations.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: It ties the young when of four year oldest watching
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: their parents sing soul karaoke to al Green and the
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: grandparents watching and doing the latest stint and the with
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: the fresh clouds in the ring, it just ties generations
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: to that. They really did because it was some little girl.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: There was a song that they those rappers they started playing.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: It was about thirty girl and little girls, and probably
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: a body in the fifth grade was singing. I went,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: What they do it, but boy, it is really in
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: joyble to watch the connection because they just took off
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: and did the little dance and hit every word and
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: it was just fantastic.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: But thank you for fighting me down there to see history,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: my brother, because you're making history. Man. It was diversity,
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the safety, the professionalism, walking in that door man it
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: was just a clean environment, safe environment. And again, ladies
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: and gentlemen, universe soul circus starts on time. Remember that.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Don't let nobody push no stereotype. I'm not saying this
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: out there, but people generally think that when you do
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: black things, you know cpee time, you know it gonna
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: start with It's gonna start not their circus, My brother,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: thank you for the time, Thank you, thank you so much,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: appreciate it. This has been another edition of Money Making
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: Conversation Masterclass hosted by me Rushaun McDonald. Thank you to
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: our guess on the show today and thank you I
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: was listening to the audience now. If you were to
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: listen to any episode I want to be a guest
• 28:02
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• 28:06
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• 28:09
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