Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Interviewing Dawnn Lewis, starred in "A Different World" sitcom. Dawnn is an award-winning Singer/Songwriter, Philanthropist & Producer

Transcript

Interviewing Dawnn Lewis, starred in "A Different World" sitcom. Dawnn is an award-winning Singer/Songwriter, Philanthropist & Producer · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
0:07
Speaker 1: has the secrets of success experience firsthand by marketing and
0:10
Speaker 1: Brandon expert Rashan McDonald. I will know he's giving me
0:13
Speaker 1: advice to many occasions. In occasion didn't notice, I'm not broke.
0:17
Speaker 1: You know. He'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs, entrepreneurs and industry
0:20
Speaker 1: decision makers. It's what he likes to do, it's what
0:23
Speaker 1: he likes to share. Now it's time to hear from
0:25
Speaker 1: my man, Rashan McDonald. Money Making Conversations here we come.
0:30
Speaker 1: Welcome to a very very special money making conversation. I'm
0:34
Speaker 1: your host, Rashan McDonald. I recognized that we all have
0:37
Speaker 1: different definitions of success. For some in succisable paycheck. Mine
0:41
Speaker 1: is helping people wake up and inspiring them to accomplish
0:43
Speaker 1: their goals and live their very best life. These are
0:46
Speaker 1: my passion and that's what I'm going to do for you.
0:48
Speaker 1: That's why I created money Making Conversations. I want you
0:51
Speaker 1: to stop tripping over small challenges and prepared to rise
0:54
Speaker 1: above bigger obstacles that life will present to you. Like
0:57
Speaker 1: I said, this is a very special area of money
0:59
Speaker 1: making comments station. It's a telethon a stream of thought
1:02
Speaker 1: that we're doing in. My next guest is playing a
1:04
Speaker 1: very very important role of that. She's an actress, awarding
1:07
Speaker 1: winning singer, songwriter, philanthropist, producer. Her name is Don Lewis.
1:12
Speaker 1: We'll be talking about her career. She's an n double
1:14
Speaker 1: a CP Image Award winner, Trumpet Award, Grammy Award winning singer,
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Speaker 1: multiple b M I and Asked CAP award winning songwriter,
1:20
Speaker 1: Film television stage actor, and he's series tra TV creator
1:24
Speaker 1: and producer. Last time she was on the show, she
1:27
Speaker 1: was starting in a Broadway musical called Tina, about the
1:30
Speaker 1: legendary Tina Turner herself. She played Tina Thomas, Tina Tanner's mom,
1:35
Speaker 1: Zelma in the Broadway musical I recently saw. In the
1:38
Speaker 1: episode of the Boys I saw were part of a
1:45
Speaker 1: fund raiser like I stated for Vorhese College. Vorhes is
1:48
Speaker 1: a private historical Black college in Denmark, South Carolina. My
1:52
Speaker 1: boy uh the Cary Sellers. His family is now from
1:56
Speaker 1: the Denmark, South Carolina area, is affiliated with the Ephistical Church,
2:00
Speaker 1: is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges in School.
2:03
Speaker 1: Please welcome to money making conversations and I'm gonna up,
2:06
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get on her because I was supposed to
2:08
Speaker 1: make a donation to her fundraiser, to her charity and
2:11
Speaker 1: she never contacted me. Please welcome money making conversations. Don Lewis, Hey,
2:19
Speaker 1: good morning with Sean. How are you how good? Just
2:24
Speaker 1: in my own defense, we did reach out and we
2:26
Speaker 1: were told something was coming and we filled out the
2:29
Speaker 1: W two. So must have got okay, cool, Okay, that
2:32
Speaker 1: would be fixed today because because I was like I said, well,
2:36
Speaker 1: you know something, because I tried to be on top
2:38
Speaker 1: of my game. You know when I say up here,
2:41
Speaker 1: I'm not. Things happen. And the fact that you remember
2:44
Speaker 1: and you brought it up is that blesses more than
2:47
Speaker 1: you know. So we will make this work. We will
2:50
Speaker 1: make it. Something must have gotten cross in. We will
2:53
Speaker 1: get that straight. This week is the end of the year,
2:55
Speaker 1: so you know, the end of the year then when
2:57
Speaker 1: I'm always looking for nice tax right off? Okay, so
2:59
Speaker 1: you we hit time again because you was this time
3:02
Speaker 1: of year when we talked last year, like about it
3:04
Speaker 1: when you were starting on the broad in the Broadway
3:06
Speaker 1: show Tina and you're playing Tina Termins mom and we
3:10
Speaker 1: see what has happened in New York City right now,
3:13
Speaker 1: Broadway has been completely shut down. Movie theaters have been
3:16
Speaker 1: completely shut down. How has the pandemic before we get
3:19
Speaker 1: into the Vorhees, Uh, stream of thron impacted your life?
3:23
Speaker 1: And also while we're doing a charity fund raiser because
3:25
Speaker 1: it's as in fact that HBCU schools and Vorhees is
3:29
Speaker 1: an HBCU school. Yes, of course, of course, it is
3:32
Speaker 1: so wonderful. Let me first of all say to be
3:34
Speaker 1: able to speak with you again, and this time face
3:36
Speaker 1: to face because the last time it's just the phone
3:39
Speaker 1: conversation radio show. Uh. And it's my honor, my privilege
3:43
Speaker 1: to be here in support of where he's. It's a
3:45
Speaker 1: fabulous campus. I got to visit there. But as you said,
3:49
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to that. But flip back, it's hard
3:51
Speaker 1: to believe it's been a year already since we were
3:54
Speaker 1: talking about Tina. Tina Turner, our musical opened actually a
3:58
Speaker 1: year ago this past past Friday. It's hard to believe
4:02
Speaker 1: it's been a year. We've been shut down for longer
4:06
Speaker 1: than we were open. We were I had just finished
4:09
Speaker 1: doing Quest Love Show, the Quest Love Love Supreme Shows
4:12
Speaker 1: we were in the studio, turned my phone back on.
4:14
Speaker 1: When I left the studio. It was on a Thursday,
4:17
Speaker 1: March twelve. I will never forget it. I scheduled the
4:20
Speaker 1: interview just in time to leave their grand a bite
4:23
Speaker 1: to eat, head to the theater, which was like a
4:25
Speaker 1: less than a mile away, and do my show and
4:28
Speaker 1: keep it moving. My phone lights up with all these
4:31
Speaker 1: bells and whistles. There is no show tonight. Don't come
4:34
Speaker 1: to the theater. We will be closed for a month.
4:36
Speaker 1: The theater will be open till five o'clock if you
4:39
Speaker 1: need something out of your dressing room. And there it began.
4:45
Speaker 1: So I quickly took a quick flight back to l A.
4:48
Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna check on my house, you know,
4:50
Speaker 1: I hadn't been here more than eight months because of
4:52
Speaker 1: rehearsals and the show, and then fly right back to
4:55
Speaker 1: keep working, only to find out that those three weeks
4:59
Speaker 1: turned into third days, which turns into sixty days. Ninety days,
5:03
Speaker 1: five months is what they were projecting. Then they were projecting, Okay,
5:06
Speaker 1: Broadway is not going to reopen until sometime in March
5:09
Speaker 1: at the earliest. Now they're projecting that the earliest that
5:12
Speaker 1: will reopen is June, possibly even September. So we're talking
5:18
Speaker 1: about making money. We're talking about how realities and life
5:22
Speaker 1: just happens and impact your life. And remember we were
5:25
Speaker 1: talking about that when we did our radio spot about
5:28
Speaker 1: how do you spend your money? How do you invest,
5:30
Speaker 1: how do you save? How do you how do you
5:33
Speaker 1: maximize what you have and piecemeal it and budget it
5:37
Speaker 1: so that you were prepared because life will happen. So
5:43
Speaker 1: for all of us who their primary income is live
5:47
Speaker 1: performance theater, or you play in an orchestra or symphony,
5:52
Speaker 1: or concerts or recording artists who are make their money
5:55
Speaker 1: doing concert venues and things like that, from most of
5:59
Speaker 1: those people, they will be without a job for one
6:03
Speaker 1: and a half years at the end of the day.
6:08
Speaker 1: So unless you have opportunities or other revenue streams, this
6:12
Speaker 1: is a very challenging time right now, an incredibly challenging
6:16
Speaker 1: time for so so many people, and we must lift
6:21
Speaker 1: them up in prayer. We lift ourselves up in in
6:24
Speaker 1: hope and anticipation, you know, with this news of a
6:27
Speaker 1: new vaccine and the possibilities of things, you know, getting
6:31
Speaker 1: on a better track near the beginning or spring of
6:34
Speaker 1: next year. Praise God for that, uh, in regard to
6:38
Speaker 1: how it impacted me, Yeah, right there, right right along
6:42
Speaker 1: with everyone you know, for a number of months because
6:45
Speaker 1: everything is shut down because, as you know, the entertainment industry,
6:48
Speaker 1: UH is based on people coming together, whether you're in
6:52
Speaker 1: the theater. And in our show, there were a cast
6:54
Speaker 1: of thirty three people in just the cast itself, the
6:58
Speaker 1: performers on on stage, and only four of us had
7:02
Speaker 1: our own dressing rooms. Okay, so everyone else is three
7:06
Speaker 1: to five people in a dressing room. So there's no
7:08
Speaker 1: way to socially distance. There's no way socially distance on stage.
7:12
Speaker 1: We can't sing with our masks on. We can't, you know.
7:15
Speaker 1: I mean the audience might be able to sit with
7:17
Speaker 1: a mask on, or skip a seat or two, or
7:20
Speaker 1: wear gloves and et cetera, which is helpful for them,
7:24
Speaker 1: but it doesn't really do much for those of us
7:26
Speaker 1: on stage. The band was fourteen people in one room.
7:31
Speaker 1: Those are old theaters. Most theaters can't accommodate everybody. Hap
7:35
Speaker 1: Broadway doesn't change old exactly. And you go on a
7:40
Speaker 1: film set, you're up in people's faces on camera, people
7:43
Speaker 1: are touching you in between shots. All of that, uh slowly,
7:47
Speaker 1: but surely the film and television industry is finding a
7:49
Speaker 1: way to make its way back. We have very very
7:53
Speaker 1: extensive COVID protocols on sets. We get tested anywhere from
7:58
Speaker 1: every twenty four to every seventy two hours on our sets,
8:02
Speaker 1: um with all kinds of ppe and people who don't
8:05
Speaker 1: have to be near you are not near you, meaning
8:07
Speaker 1: if you're the one on camera that has to take
8:09
Speaker 1: your mask off from time to time, all those kinds
8:12
Speaker 1: of things to ensure everybody is safe. Um. You know,
8:16
Speaker 1: different people have been able to create bubbles, just like
8:19
Speaker 1: the NBA, just like some of the sports leagues, where
8:22
Speaker 1: once you're in and we're working on this project, you're
8:24
Speaker 1: not going anywhere else. You're not going to a party,
8:27
Speaker 1: You're not going to a restaurant, You're not going anywhere.
8:30
Speaker 1: We're keeping you right here, and we can keep you
8:32
Speaker 1: in eye on. You will bring you your food, you
8:35
Speaker 1: stay healthy, you will go home and see your family
8:37
Speaker 1: when this is over. Absolutely absolutely, and I'm all for it.
8:41
Speaker 1: I am all for it, um and gratefully. I also
8:45
Speaker 1: do voiceovers animation, so sometimes when this all first happened,
8:49
Speaker 1: I was able to every now and then do some
8:52
Speaker 1: recording from right here at home. You know, those were
8:56
Speaker 1: kind of few and far between, and then slowly in
8:59
Speaker 1: the summer, you know, a couple of more opportunities came
9:02
Speaker 1: up where they started sanitizing recording students. Just me in
9:06
Speaker 1: the booth, the engineer at the board, and the producers
9:10
Speaker 1: and directors direct me via zoom from wherever they are.
9:14
Speaker 1: So again, no two people in the studio at the
9:17
Speaker 1: same time. Everything is sanitized before and after every performer.
9:22
Speaker 1: So again, fortunately that and my songwriting has enabled me
9:27
Speaker 1: to you know, slowly but surely be able to maintain income.
9:30
Speaker 1: So let measine this Don. I'm talking to Don Louis
9:33
Speaker 1: of course, um, you know we're talking. We're doing a
9:36
Speaker 1: stream of thought with for his college, HBCU College in Denmark,
9:40
Speaker 1: South Carolina. That's why we were broadcasting the day because
9:43
Speaker 1: we're trying to raise funds, you know, as all things.
9:45
Speaker 1: Like she said, COVID has shutting down the Broadway for
9:49
Speaker 1: roughly eighteen months there. Yes, and we can get excited
9:52
Speaker 1: about the fact that fires that has come up with
9:54
Speaker 1: any percent accuracy of vaccine, but that's not gonna be
10:00
Speaker 1: distributed right away. You know, they said they weren't even
10:02
Speaker 1: giving them the more testing to in the December maybe,
10:06
Speaker 1: and so then they were saying that vaccinations for the
10:09
Speaker 1: general population were probably hitting the second quarter. But again,
10:12
Speaker 1: the city of New York has shut down Broadway has
10:15
Speaker 1: shut down movie theaters. The state of California has shut
10:18
Speaker 1: down movie theaters. Right now, the major litigation with Disney
10:23
Speaker 1: about trying to open up the Disney Park because of
10:25
Speaker 1: the fact that they're trying to generate revenue. Major corporations
10:28
Speaker 1: are laying all people, and so that's why we're trying
10:31
Speaker 1: to ask people, you know, to see past some of
10:34
Speaker 1: these hard times and helper college like Vorheeses. Now, how
10:37
Speaker 1: did your relationship developed with them over the years. Uh,
10:41
Speaker 1: you know you you're so curiosmatic and you and as
10:44
Speaker 1: they say, uh black don't crack. You're doing a great
10:47
Speaker 1: job of carrying that slogan to the end. There, don
10:53
Speaker 1: very very kind. One of the administrators at Forest R
10:58
Speaker 1: Herman Mason, I called Skip, Skip, give me if I
11:02
Speaker 1: put you on blast, which but I've known Skip for
11:06
Speaker 1: a decade and when he got brought onto Vorhees, Skipper
11:10
Speaker 1: was aware that I do master classes and workshops for
11:14
Speaker 1: colleges and corporations all across the country and abroad. I've
11:18
Speaker 1: been doing that for decades. Which when we last talked,
11:21
Speaker 1: we were talking about my foundation, a New Day Foundation, right,
11:25
Speaker 1: So Skip asked me if I would please come and
11:27
Speaker 1: do one of my workshops at Vorhees and I said, man,
11:31
Speaker 1: of course I will. I'd be happy to and I'm
11:34
Speaker 1: so glad that I did. It's a beautiful campus. It
11:38
Speaker 1: feels like a little intimate home, it really does. And
11:42
Speaker 1: all of those students are so accomplished, and they're so personable,
11:47
Speaker 1: and they're so enthusiastic about their possibilities and their possibilities
11:52
Speaker 1: through education. So I got to do a large assembly
11:56
Speaker 1: and it blessed my heart. As soon as I walked
11:58
Speaker 1: out on stage, everybody's it up and they started singing
12:01
Speaker 1: the different World these so we were sitting there jam
12:04
Speaker 1: and it was it was great. It was absolutely great, Um,
12:07
Speaker 1: which is such an honor to me that those words, um,
12:12
Speaker 1: you know, talking about taking what you've learned and what's
12:15
Speaker 1: been deposited in you to give you the foundation and
12:18
Speaker 1: the courage to step out and like you said, be
12:21
Speaker 1: your best self. Encourage people to be their best self
12:24
Speaker 1: based on the lessons that they learned. Before they went
12:27
Speaker 1: in a position to step out for themselves, which is
12:31
Speaker 1: every student at every HBCU, at every institute for higher
12:35
Speaker 1: learning is doing So whatever it was you didn't know
12:39
Speaker 1: or didn't know before you got there, you got a
12:42
Speaker 1: big responsibility right now. So coming before he's it was,
12:46
Speaker 1: it was fantastic. And RESI is donating and donating and
12:51
Speaker 1: contributing to you know, because you had these big announcements
12:54
Speaker 1: by the major corporations like Netflix they made a donation.
12:58
Speaker 1: Uh uh, you know, Bloom made a donation and so
13:02
Speaker 1: and so. But that that that's a trickle down donation
13:04
Speaker 1: because of the fact that you have a hundred and
13:06
Speaker 1: four HBCUs. And with that said, that means that you
13:11
Speaker 1: need to we have students who need scholarships, we need
13:14
Speaker 1: to books, we need to be able to pay the instructors.
13:17
Speaker 1: We have Athletic programs are not operating, not just an
13:20
Speaker 1: HBCU schools but across the country being shut down because
13:23
Speaker 1: of the fact that they are not in a position
13:25
Speaker 1: to participate. And so with that being said, a school
13:30
Speaker 1: like Vorhees which is in Denmark, South Carolina, and uh,
13:35
Speaker 1: it's like said my bark card sellers. You know, CNN.
13:38
Speaker 1: One of the youngest UM congressmen elected officials in the
13:43
Speaker 1: state of South Carolina was on the show. We talked
13:46
Speaker 1: about it and the fact that the show, my show,
13:49
Speaker 1: My show broadcast money making conversation has been. One of
13:52
Speaker 1: the first schools that picked me up for consideration was
13:56
Speaker 1: was Vorhees, which is an HBCU school. And so when
13:59
Speaker 1: I when I talked to someone on like you down.
14:01
Speaker 1: You're so wardly and you're so articulate. The fact that
14:04
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Speaker 1: dot ai. You know, I was one of those kids.
16:14
Speaker 1: Was always I loved imitating people. I love singing along
16:18
Speaker 1: with the programs I saw on television, or just just
16:22
Speaker 1: having a good time. And I was one of those
16:23
Speaker 1: kids where my grandmother used to say, you need to
16:25
Speaker 1: stop doing that because one day your voice is gonna
16:27
Speaker 1: get stuck. If my grandmama could see me now to say,
16:30
Speaker 1: see Granny, I'm getting paid to come up with all
16:35
Speaker 1: these crazy voices and act the fool and be people
16:38
Speaker 1: that visually you would never hire me to be. You
16:41
Speaker 1: would never hire me to be a seven year old boy.
16:43
Speaker 1: You would even hired me to be a ninety year
16:46
Speaker 1: old grandmother. You know what I mean all of that. So,
16:48
Speaker 1: but uh, animation came about. I don't know if the
16:51
Speaker 1: names Suzanne to Pass come on my girl, Suzanne to Pass,
16:57
Speaker 1: sister sister was she hired me to be a writer
17:01
Speaker 1: for the Maori Twins Tina and then she okay, well,
17:05
Speaker 1: that was how she and I met. She saw me
17:07
Speaker 1: sing at an event and said, who's working with you?
17:10
Speaker 1: I want to work with you. She wanted to manage me.
17:12
Speaker 1: That was when she was thinking about doing management. And
17:15
Speaker 1: she was hired to do this new Kid in Play cartoon.
17:20
Speaker 1: She brought me in and I played the little sister,
17:24
Speaker 1: the little annoying little sister in the Kid and Play cartoon.
17:28
Speaker 1: And the voiceover community is a very tight knit community.
17:31
Speaker 1: So once you're in, and by the grace of God,
17:35
Speaker 1: if you're able to get a good reputation either for
17:38
Speaker 1: your personality or for your ability to be flexible with
17:42
Speaker 1: your voice, word gets around. So when I got hired
17:45
Speaker 1: to do that, people like, but wait, who is who
17:48
Speaker 1: is that? I've not heard her voice before and she's black. Oh,
17:51
Speaker 1: we need to get her. So word of mouth got
17:53
Speaker 1: me from one job to the next job to the
17:55
Speaker 1: next job. And uh, I worked for almost three years
17:58
Speaker 1: like that before I got an agents and then got
18:01
Speaker 1: an agent, and my career has been going this roll
18:06
Speaker 1: and now another one. You're acting made from different world
18:09
Speaker 1: think with Cree Summers Cree Summer Cree Summer also does
18:12
Speaker 1: voice over, and uh, I honestly knew. You know that
18:16
Speaker 1: the field existed because you grow up on cartoons, whether
18:19
Speaker 1: it's The flint Stones or Jetsons, you know, whatever it was,
18:22
Speaker 1: So you knew somebody did the voices. But then then
18:25
Speaker 1: you heard things like Hannah barb Barbara. It's like one
18:28
Speaker 1: person doing eight or not, like oh my gosh, just
18:34
Speaker 1: like bugs Bunny is Donald Duck is what is Yosemite Sam?
18:39
Speaker 1: But called the same person. Oh my gosh. So when
18:42
Speaker 1: I got my opportunity, So right now, I'm on about
18:46
Speaker 1: ten different animated series. Congratulations, thank you. The newest one
18:51
Speaker 1: that just aired is CBS didn't animated Star Trek series
18:55
Speaker 1: called Star Trek. Voice of Captain Freeman on that show.
19:01
Speaker 1: In Futurama, Um La Barbara in um We're in the
19:04
Speaker 1: World is Carmen san Diego. I'm the chief in Apple
19:08
Speaker 1: and Onion, I miss Miss Patty, and I mean the
19:12
Speaker 1: list just goes on. In Spirit, I'm Franny and Doc
19:15
Speaker 1: mix stuff ins, I'm granting mixed stuff ins and it's
19:18
Speaker 1: I consider myself very fortunate. And I'm gonna tell you something,
19:21
Speaker 1: you know, I I love watching television Buyer people always
19:24
Speaker 1: say you're trying. How do you do what you do?
19:26
Speaker 1: And you seem seem to be able to watch TV,
19:29
Speaker 1: read books, go to movies, and stay abreast of everything
19:32
Speaker 1: that's happening. And so one of my favorite, uh sci
19:35
Speaker 1: fi series, a super superhero series is The Boys and
19:39
Speaker 1: so on Amazon. And so I'm watching Amazon. I'm going
19:44
Speaker 1: Don said Don Luis and the Beauty of Amazon. You know,
19:49
Speaker 1: you can put it on pause and they'll show you
19:51
Speaker 1: who who's in that scene? So how did that are
19:53
Speaker 1: did that opportunity to come about? Wow? I am such
19:57
Speaker 1: a fan of the show. It's crazy. It's a crazy show. Honesty,
20:01
Speaker 1: I'm such a fan of the show. It is so wacky,
20:04
Speaker 1: it is so irreverent, it is so many things. It's
20:10
Speaker 1: hilarious to me and thought provoking at the same time
20:13
Speaker 1: because some of that stuff is like you know what
20:15
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff season, specially this season is going on.
20:19
Speaker 1: This season felt don't kind of like kind of like
20:22
Speaker 1: a little bit about reality, you know, racism and not
20:25
Speaker 1: people theory between racism, experimentation with genetic augmentation. I mean,
20:31
Speaker 1: all kinds of things, all kinds of things. Um, So
20:34
Speaker 1: I'm actually packing to head to New York to start
20:37
Speaker 1: repousals for Tina, and I get a call it's like,
20:40
Speaker 1: would you be interested, you know, and coming to play
20:43
Speaker 1: with us in this in this episode of the Boys,
20:45
Speaker 1: and you can have called said will you be interested?
20:49
Speaker 1: That's that's the call. No, I will you be interested? Yeah,
20:54
Speaker 1: that's awesome, that's all. So when you get when you
20:56
Speaker 1: get those calls like that, which is a blessing because
20:59
Speaker 1: I know how to entertaining how this industry is. Sometimes
21:02
Speaker 1: some of the things that drains a performer is always auditioning,
21:05
Speaker 1: always auditioning, and always getting rejected. We still do that too.
21:08
Speaker 1: We still it's a whole new game right now. Since
21:11
Speaker 1: no one's going in in person for auditions, you now
21:15
Speaker 1: have to become your own producer, your own cinematographer, your
21:19
Speaker 1: own sound person, lighting person who you have enough friends
21:22
Speaker 1: to come and read sides with you, Like I need
21:26
Speaker 1: a wall to do this audition? What in the world?
21:32
Speaker 1: So now you're your own director, your own lighting designer,
21:35
Speaker 1: sound person. It's like, Okay, this is way too much,
21:39
Speaker 1: but that's now becoming the norm. And I gotta tell you,
21:42
Speaker 1: while it may be practical, it's really not good for us. Actors.
21:48
Speaker 1: It's very stressful. It really, it's it's very stress you
21:52
Speaker 1: great phone call? Are you busy? Are you get this?
21:55
Speaker 1: Called for the bars? Are you busy? Are you free? Man?
21:59
Speaker 1: I was packing, was packing to head to New York
22:01
Speaker 1: for a year and a half to start doing Tina,
22:04
Speaker 1: and he said, we need you up here for like
22:05
Speaker 1: a week or so. I was like, I can come
22:07
Speaker 1: for three days because I'm sitting here, I'll be leaving suitcases.
22:12
Speaker 1: So I flew from l A to Toronto. I worked
22:15
Speaker 1: my my three days, flew back to l A, finished packing,
22:19
Speaker 1: then flew back to New York alwaysin a week to
22:23
Speaker 1: start rehearsals for Tina. Now, let's let's always admire individuals
22:29
Speaker 1: who are so casual about their talents. Okay, because you
22:32
Speaker 1: know Tina is a musical, Okay, And you're about to
22:36
Speaker 1: go into a very intense sci fi series called The Boys.
22:40
Speaker 1: There's Arizona Amazon, and you plan a character is kind
22:43
Speaker 1: of a low key character, but a character who is
22:47
Speaker 1: reluctant to be a participant and sharing information. So how
22:53
Speaker 1: so you get the script? How do you how do
22:55
Speaker 1: you build that character structure and incredibility even though you
22:59
Speaker 1: know you're limited on the out of time that they
23:01
Speaker 1: wanted you, and you have to deliver, like basically one
23:04
Speaker 1: take opportunities. You know, Um, there are certain stories that
23:10
Speaker 1: resonate for different reasons, that particular story coming from a community,
23:15
Speaker 1: being a person of color that witnesses uh crime by
23:19
Speaker 1: a white person onto a black person. There are generations
23:23
Speaker 1: where you, as much as it's the right thing to do,
23:26
Speaker 1: people constantly are warning you don't talk, don't tell, because
23:30
Speaker 1: it's gonna be bad for you. They're gonna come down
23:32
Speaker 1: on you. Uh, this could blow back on your family.
23:35
Speaker 1: And which is the things that a lot of communities
23:38
Speaker 1: still deal with today. When you see things happening in
23:42
Speaker 1: your community and you know what's wrong, and part of
23:45
Speaker 1: you really want to speak up because you know that's
23:48
Speaker 1: the right thing to do or the wrong is only
23:50
Speaker 1: going to increase and ultimately overtake your community, and you
23:57
Speaker 1: want to do the right thing. But for different reasons,
23:59
Speaker 1: you get beat down. You get told not to be
24:01
Speaker 1: a squealer, you get told if you say anything, I'm
24:04
Speaker 1: coming for you. But this woman sees the science and
24:08
Speaker 1: sees the better part of Like, you know what I've
24:11
Speaker 1: been holding onto this long enough? Absolutely I got to
24:13
Speaker 1: tell the truth and it gen it then shifts the
24:18
Speaker 1: entire rest of the season, you know, And I'm not
24:22
Speaker 1: gonna be a spoiler because I think I think we've
24:25
Speaker 1: done a good job here Don with the Boys, shaping
24:28
Speaker 1: your character, not telling anybody how you came into the
24:32
Speaker 1: how that episode was developed. But the fun part about
24:35
Speaker 1: it for me was to be watching television, deeply engrossed
24:39
Speaker 1: in the series, and then one of my favorite people
24:41
Speaker 1: pops on the screen and they deliver in a role
24:45
Speaker 1: that I would not have expected, you know, because you're
24:47
Speaker 1: not made up. You're not I would give that away.
24:49
Speaker 1: She's not looking vivacious, you know, she's looking very ordinary
24:53
Speaker 1: in this character that she's playing for the Boys, but
24:56
Speaker 1: she delivers a magnificent sequence. Because my man lives Alonso,
25:00
Speaker 1: which I think that episode really featured him, and he
25:03
Speaker 1: did an amazing job for that particular episode. He's a
25:06
Speaker 1: good guy. I've known laws for a long time. And
25:10
Speaker 1: Jack Quaid, who plays Hue, actually he's in the cast
25:14
Speaker 1: of Star Trek Lower Decks. He and I work a
25:17
Speaker 1: lot together, so uh yeah, so that was that was
25:20
Speaker 1: very very cool that episode Lives. I was so proud
25:24
Speaker 1: of him because he carried that whole episode, the whole
25:27
Speaker 1: drive down. We found out about his father and a
25:31
Speaker 1: lot of background information. And that's what makes a really
25:34
Speaker 1: good serious and that what makes it when I when
25:36
Speaker 1: I look at you, don you know, you know, just
25:39
Speaker 1: out of respect, you're fantastic. You are an uplift. Just
25:44
Speaker 1: in our conversation that I'm having with you right now,
25:47
Speaker 1: you know, there is a ray of not only just
25:50
Speaker 1: natural beauty, but a ray of uplift. And that's that's
25:53
Speaker 1: that's that's that's something just just natural within you. Like
25:56
Speaker 1: I wouldn't use the word bubbly, but you're just energy
26:00
Speaker 1: to make people feel good. Uh. That's a That's probably
26:04
Speaker 1: one of the kindest things anyone could say to me.
26:06
Speaker 1: And I absolutely appreciate that and receive that. And uh,
26:10
Speaker 1: I gotta give our glory to God. I really do.
26:13
Speaker 1: I really do, because we're living in a very scary place.
26:17
Speaker 1: Uh and for generations it's been a very very scary place.
26:20
Speaker 1: And the irony that it's still meaning the America is
26:24
Speaker 1: one of the best places to live on the planet
26:28
Speaker 1: to let you know what the realities are most likely
26:32
Speaker 1: in other places, and we are now living through such
26:37
Speaker 1: a shift in what the world's reality is, what our
26:42
Speaker 1: country's reality and potential is. With this recent election and
26:48
Speaker 1: veil being pulled off and people showing you very clearly
26:51
Speaker 1: who they are, very clearly who they are. So for
26:57
Speaker 1: myself and other people who UM identify themselves as sons
27:02
Speaker 1: and daughters of Christ, of Jesus, of God, UM, it's
27:06
Speaker 1: our job to reflect this is how it can be.
27:10
Speaker 1: This is how weak as individuals can be. God stands
27:13
Speaker 1: for love, forgiveness, grace, unity, community, um, servants of your
27:20
Speaker 1: fellow man, and and a stewardship of those who are
27:23
Speaker 1: less fortunate than you. So, if you're in a position
27:26
Speaker 1: with the mindset that you have to have what it
27:29
Speaker 1: is you want and are accustomed to in your life
27:33
Speaker 1: at the expense of someone else, that you call yourself
27:36
Speaker 1: a child of God, you need to go back and
27:38
Speaker 1: read the book. And I'm not you know whoever you are.
27:41
Speaker 1: You know who you are. If you believe that violence
27:45
Speaker 1: and killing and fighting and burning and obstructing justice is
27:50
Speaker 1: the way to make sure that what you believe is insured,
27:55
Speaker 1: then you're not talking about democracy, you're not talking about
27:58
Speaker 1: being christ Like. Absolutely, this is what's coming out of
28:02
Speaker 1: people's mouths. They're doing what they're doing in the name
28:04
Speaker 1: of democracy, not caring who lives or dies, not not
28:09
Speaker 1: caring whose voices are listened to. And the it's mind
28:13
Speaker 1: boggling when you see the the contradictory statements were just
28:19
Speaker 1: four years ago, these same people were accusing the Democrats
28:22
Speaker 1: of exactly what they're doing now. Absolutely, as I don't
28:28
Speaker 1: even have to say anything, Let's just play the tape
28:30
Speaker 1: of what you said just two years ago now and
28:35
Speaker 1: y'all have a conversation. Let that person and the person
28:38
Speaker 1: you're seeing you are now to have a conversation. And
28:40
Speaker 1: I'm gonna step over here and do my job. So
28:42
Speaker 1: for me, whatever light, whatever grace, whatever joy you see
28:46
Speaker 1: is because um, I don't know any other way to
28:50
Speaker 1: get through. And I'm telling you something. We need more
28:53
Speaker 1: of that today. As you know what you just said
28:56
Speaker 1: was unfortunately it was the truth. We have contradictory people
28:59
Speaker 1: who say one thing but actually show their colors to
29:02
Speaker 1: me and another but more than them, but more you
29:06
Speaker 1: know them, that's correct. And so you know this is
29:09
Speaker 1: like our PPS moment. You know you've been watching PBS
29:11
Speaker 1: and you you see a great uh singing moments and
29:17
Speaker 1: then they cut away and they have these two nice
29:19
Speaker 1: looking people I could call us Don and Rashan, we're
29:22
Speaker 1: too nice looking people who come back and tell you,
29:25
Speaker 1: I'm sure you enjoyed that. Well, the only way you
29:27
Speaker 1: can continue to enjoy such great entertainment is by donating.
29:31
Speaker 1: And we're asking you during the three mouth streamer thon
29:34
Speaker 1: to donate to Vorehees. Is. That's how that was a
29:36
Speaker 1: pretty good pitch. There was that phenomenal seen. I've been
29:44
Speaker 1: watchings absolutely right. What we're talking about, what we are
29:47
Speaker 1: talking about, protecting democracy, protecting positivity, protecting potential is we
29:54
Speaker 1: have to invest in it. And for a lot of
29:57
Speaker 1: people right now, it's probably one of the worst times
30:00
Speaker 1: you can ask them. Can you spare a dollar? Can
30:03
Speaker 1: you spare five dollars? Can you spare fifty, a hundred,
30:06
Speaker 1: whatever you can spare, think about it this way, if
30:10
Speaker 1: at all possible, If this is your community, if these
30:14
Speaker 1: are your kids, if these are your friends kids, this
30:18
Speaker 1: is our future, please support Vorhees. Please support the HBCU
30:24
Speaker 1: in your community. But if you're watching this today, we're
30:27
Speaker 1: checking you for Vorhees. Whatever you can possibly give, and
30:32
Speaker 1: sometimes it's money, sometimes it's services. Maybe you don't have money,
30:36
Speaker 1: but maybe you work for a company that makes computers.
30:39
Speaker 1: Maybe you work for a company that has digital space.
30:42
Speaker 1: Get that company to start donating. Get your bosses to
30:46
Speaker 1: start donating. Be a voice of encouragement and of change
30:51
Speaker 1: and of support. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are given
30:55
Speaker 1: away by by corporations every year to all kinds of organizaation.
31:00
Speaker 1: Talk to your boss, talk to your philanthropic arm of
31:03
Speaker 1: where you work, of who you serve to say, please
31:07
Speaker 1: please consider this college. It's gonna make a huge difference
31:12
Speaker 1: to each and every one of these students. Done. Wow,
31:17
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming back on money making conversations. Thank
31:19
Speaker 1: you for being part of streama thon for hes. More importantly,
31:23
Speaker 1: you know, like you said, this was annual year. Because
31:25
Speaker 1: remember I was supposed to be in New York watching
31:28
Speaker 1: you on Tina, and that didn't happen. So when this
31:31
Speaker 1: pandemic slows down. In fact, I'll be in l A tomorrow.
31:33
Speaker 1: I got some meetings in flying from Atlanta, but I'm
31:35
Speaker 1: only there for one day. But more importantly, you're part
31:39
Speaker 1: of my life, and you're part of what I believe in.
31:41
Speaker 1: Your part of the the approach that I have of
31:43
Speaker 1: trying to give people free advice, free uplift and uh
31:47
Speaker 1: making him feel good about themselves doing doing downtimes don't change.
31:52
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you, Don, thank you, thank you so much,
31:55
Speaker 1: and thank you Rashan, Thank you boy, he's thank you
31:58
Speaker 1: to everyone who is watching. The fact that you're here,
32:01
Speaker 1: I means you're already on the same page and you're
32:04
Speaker 1: already hitting in the right direction. Thank you for everything
32:07
Speaker 1: you've already. This is what we're gonna do. This is
32:09
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do done next year, because the next year,
32:11
Speaker 1: I'm gonna we're gonna talk to them. We should look here, well,
32:14
Speaker 1: we need to do alive. You and I because I'm
32:16
Speaker 1: enjoying it because you you're You're something special. You you're special.
32:19
Speaker 1: And then I want to do something just like they
32:21
Speaker 1: do with PPS. We're gonna just we're gonna just uh
32:24
Speaker 1: because I got a lot of friends in the business
32:26
Speaker 1: and you've got a lot of friends in the business,
32:28
Speaker 1: and we're gonna host I'm telling what he's I'm volunteering
32:32
Speaker 1: right now. And my girl Don, she's on the same
32:34
Speaker 1: page with me, and we're gonna do We're gonna do
32:37
Speaker 1: a streamer thon and we're gonna invite different friends that
32:40
Speaker 1: we know in the business to call in via stream
32:44
Speaker 1: and then we'll get this generate this, get these donations flying.
32:47
Speaker 1: Because I just found out about this recently, I would
32:50
Speaker 1: have been much more engaged. But the most I can
32:53
Speaker 1: give is what we're doing right now. This great interview
32:56
Speaker 1: I'm delivered with you that will air on the Wild
32:59
Speaker 1: Air doing the string the thon. But let's here, let's
33:01
Speaker 1: let's have them contact my people, they contact your people
33:05
Speaker 1: if you feel great about this idea, but let's host
33:07
Speaker 1: something to use our resources in this industry to really
33:11
Speaker 1: make next year's three months three monthon to be an
33:16
Speaker 1: amazing uh uh financial endowment for the school. Your thoughts, yep,
33:21
Speaker 1: I'm in with you, remember lou Ros. Absolutely it was fantastic.
33:32
Speaker 1: I did that telethon uh several several times, but were
33:37
Speaker 1: en then, my friend, thank you for coming on the
33:39
Speaker 1: show by making conferenceations. We're talking okay, And thank you
33:43
Speaker 1: again for your ongoing support of the New Day Foundation. Absolutely.
33:48
Speaker 1: Oh girls, you know I'm writing to check today. What
33:50
Speaker 1: you're not gonna do is me talk to you again.
33:52
Speaker 1: Without knowing that it was on me that the check
33:55
Speaker 1: was not delivered. You send all your information and it
33:57
Speaker 1: was on Rashad McDonald. Well, I'm a kes all that
34:00
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