Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Born in a small Georgia town, Actress Ellia English, did not limit her dreams, starring as Aunt Helen on The Jamie Foxx Show, regular on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Transcript

Born in a small Georgia town, Actress Ellia English, did not limit her dreams, starring as Aunt Helen on The Jamie Foxx Show, regular on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. It's the show that she
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: is 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 on many occasions. And in case you didn't notice,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: I'm not broke. You know he'll be interviewing celebrity CEOs,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurs and industry decision makers. It's what he likes to do,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: it's what he likes to share. Now it's time to
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: hear from my man, Rashan McDonald money Making Conversations.
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  Speaker 2: Here we go.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I am Rashan McDonald when I host the weekly Money
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  Speaker 3: Making Conversation master Class show.
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  Speaker 4: The interviews and information that this show provides are for everyone.
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  Speaker 3: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
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  Speaker 3: start living your own. My next guest is Georgia native
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  Speaker 3: Eliat English.
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  Speaker 4: She is an indelible.
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  Speaker 3: Career in television, theater, film and the jazz clubes and
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  Speaker 3: from all Moro television roles as Anti Ray on HBO's
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  Speaker 3: Curry Enthusiasm, Love Her and Hell on Jamie Fox Show
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  Speaker 3: That's where I met her, Mary Lewinz on Disney's Club.
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  Speaker 3: Good Luck, Charlie, and it's hinting on Lifetime Movie of
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  Speaker 3: the Week Pedals on the Wind. She was on the
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  Speaker 3: show to talk about her career, upcoming YouTube show, and
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  Speaker 3: the final season of Curby Your Enthusiasm, Please welco with
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  Speaker 3: the Money Making Conversations, Masterclass Show.
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  Speaker 4: Elliott English, How you doing, my friend.
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing wonderful. Thank you for asking, how are you?
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  Speaker 4: I'm ready to talk. I'm ready to talk.
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  Speaker 2: I'm ready, I'm ready. It is a pleasure.
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  Speaker 4: Well, thank you.
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  Speaker 3: It's really excited to have you on the air because
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  Speaker 3: you know, you and I met way back, and I
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  Speaker 3: want to say about ninety eight when I was co
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  Speaker 3: executive using the Jamie Fox Show, watching his career, watching
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  Speaker 3: your career grow and blossom and grow to diversity. You
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  Speaker 3: know when I said diversity, I just knew you was
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  Speaker 3: an actress. Now I didn't know you could sing. You've
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  Speaker 3: become an author. Talk about diversifying yourself along the way
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  Speaker 3: long that path or any having their career.
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  Speaker 5: Okay, Well for me, Rashan, I know that when I
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  Speaker 5: first moved away from home from Georgia, a little small
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  Speaker 5: town outside of Atlanta called Covington, and I moved to
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  Speaker 5: New York, I went there to begin my career in theater,
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  Speaker 5: and so I started out in theater. And one of
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  Speaker 5: the things that I learned during theater you had to
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  Speaker 5: be what was called at that time a triple threat.
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  Speaker 5: You had to be able to act, you had to
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  Speaker 5: be able to sing, and you had to be able
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  Speaker 5: to dance if you wanted to work on Broadway. And
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  Speaker 5: so I had to immediately, Thank goodness, I had already
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  Speaker 5: started theater before I left Atlanta. I did two projects.
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  Speaker 5: One was called I Feel My Goodness it was Manhattan
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  Speaker 5: Yellow Pages, and the other one was called Blackbirds of
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  Speaker 5: nineteen seventy eight. I was still in school when I
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  Speaker 5: did those projects in Atlanta, but they helped me to
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  Speaker 5: launch I guess what. I realized that that time was
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  Speaker 5: going to be my acting career. And then I went
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  Speaker 5: to New York ended up being on Broadway doing Ain't
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  Speaker 5: Misbehaving the Fats Waller Musical, which was awesome. Yeah, and
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  Speaker 5: then from there.
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  Speaker 3: Go Ahead, which let on a little bit because small town, yes,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and I come from Houston, Texas, so you know,
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  Speaker 3: I started as a stand up comedian and from a
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  Speaker 3: big market, but I wasn't in New York, and I
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  Speaker 3: wasn't in La you know those two markets people say
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  Speaker 3: you gotta go to. So what was the mentality? Was
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  Speaker 3: there any fear translating from a small market, small town
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  Speaker 3: personality to a big place like New York.
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  Speaker 5: That's a great question, Rashan. And I'll never forget that
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  Speaker 5: day when I arrived. You're making me go back and
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  Speaker 5: live relive some moments. But the blessing for me, Thank
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  Speaker 5: God for my parents, my dad at that time when
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  Speaker 5: I was moving away, my dad actually had become a pastor,
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  Speaker 5: a minister of a church.
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  Speaker 2: But we've been, I've been.
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  Speaker 5: I grew up in the church, so faith was one
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  Speaker 5: of the things that I did learn growing up and
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  Speaker 5: I had to hold on to it. But yes, there
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  Speaker 5: was great fear. And when I was traveling to New
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  Speaker 5: York from Georgia, a situation happened where the producer that
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  Speaker 5: I had done The Manhattan Yellow Pages with and the
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  Speaker 5: Blackbirds of nineteen seventy eight, he was supposed to be
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  Speaker 5: bringing me my final check because I was getting ready
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  Speaker 5: to travel and he was late, and he caused me
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  Speaker 5: to miss my flight, which caused me to miss the
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  Speaker 5: person who was going to be picking me up. When
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  Speaker 5: I got to New York, and so when I arrived
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  Speaker 5: in New York, he couldn't get back to the airport
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  Speaker 5: in time to get me. So he was like, I
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  Speaker 5: want you to go out, and you're gonna take this bus.
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  Speaker 5: And this bus landed me on a street that I
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  Speaker 5: was so not prepared for. Trust me, I was green,
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  Speaker 5: beyond green. I mean, I was so naive young at
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  Speaker 5: the time. I was on forty second Street. But all
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  Speaker 5: I kept singing to myself was and saying to myself,
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  Speaker 5: first of all, I don't believe you brought me this
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  Speaker 5: far to leave me. And there was a song that
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  Speaker 5: I learned that I used to sing in the in
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  Speaker 5: the church choir when I was little, and it goes,
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  Speaker 5: I don't feel no ways tied. I've come too far
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  Speaker 5: from where I started from. Nobody told me the road
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  Speaker 5: the water be easy, And I don't believe you brought
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  Speaker 5: me this far to leave me. That was my mom.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I'm gonna tell you some forty second screen
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  Speaker 3: for people who go there now, the forty second Street,
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  Speaker 3: because I went to four I saw forty chuccle Stree
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  Speaker 3: in eighty eight, so I know exactly. I mean, the
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  Speaker 3: cops sing that they had bigger guns than I've ever seen.
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  Speaker 4: You couldn't walk two feet without being a lady of
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  Speaker 4: the night or a man in.
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  Speaker 5: The knight approaching you.
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  Speaker 3: You could walk two feet without somebody wanted to sell
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  Speaker 3: you drugs. She and I was from Houston, Texas. I
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  Speaker 3: was stunt, so I know from cover, Georgia. You were
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  Speaker 3: really taken back, taken back.
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  Speaker 2: I've never seen anything like it.
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  Speaker 5: And even though I'd lived in Atlanta for a while
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  Speaker 5: before I moved away, I never got in those communities,
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  Speaker 5: I never saw anything like it. It was so crazy,
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  Speaker 5: and I was blessed because right after I got off
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  Speaker 5: the bus and I looked around and saw where I was,
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  Speaker 5: a taxi driver pulled up. And when he pulled up,
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  Speaker 5: he pulled up in front of me, and his tires screeched,
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  Speaker 5: and he was like, hello, You're not from here, are you?
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  Speaker 5: And I went no, I'm not. He was like, where
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  Speaker 5: are you going? And I told him where I was going.
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  Speaker 5: I didn't realize it was really right around the corner,
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  Speaker 5: and he said to me, get in this taxi and
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  Speaker 5: get in here now. And I jumped in the taxi
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  Speaker 5: and he just drove me around the corner and got
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  Speaker 5: me to the apartment complex that I needed to be in.
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  Speaker 5: I said, that's when I went, Okay, Angels, thank you.
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  Speaker 5: My angels were truly watching over me that day.
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  Speaker 4: We know I can remember that.
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  Speaker 3: You know, my New York experience was very similar to
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  Speaker 3: yours because it's so many people, it's move so fast.
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  Speaker 3: When people were watching this show or listen to the show.
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  Speaker 3: Any advice that you can give them by, you know,
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  Speaker 3: an opportunity you went forward, But you need to be
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  Speaker 3: a little concious, better planner for that situation that you
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  Speaker 3: walked in like I walked in, you know, because every
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: plan doesn't go correct.
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  Speaker 4: What would you suggest I would.
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  Speaker 5: Truly, in this day and age, I would tell young
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  Speaker 5: people get informed. We have access now to information that
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  Speaker 5: you and I didn't have at the time. I mean
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  Speaker 5: when I had to go look something up, we still
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  Speaker 5: had to go to the library to get this information.
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  Speaker 5: But we have information at our fingertips now with the internet,
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  Speaker 5: you know where you can and then we've got our Google.
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  Speaker 5: We can go in and google anything. Be informed, make
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  Speaker 5: sure you learn, make sure you and the good part
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  Speaker 5: was I did have contacts when I came out, so
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  Speaker 5: I wasn't coming out just.
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  Speaker 2: On my own and being a lot loan.
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  Speaker 5: I actually had some actors that I had worked with
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  Speaker 5: who had come to Georgia and that show that I
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: did call the Manhattan Yellow Pages, and they were there
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  Speaker 5: as well. So they were there to help me, to
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  Speaker 5: guide me, to tell me, you know, what I needed
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  Speaker 5: to do, how to get to the auditions, how to
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  Speaker 5: ride the trains. So you do you need, like I guess,
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: not necessarily a village, but you do need like your core,
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: a core group of people that you can trust when
• 8:24
  Speaker 5: you're there, and that who's lived in the community and
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  Speaker 5: they know it and they can definitely steer you the
• 8:30
  Speaker 5: right way and in the right course. So I would
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  Speaker 5: advise people to make sure you stay informed.
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  Speaker 3: Quite speaking earlier English on healing on the Jamie Fox Show, I'm.
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  Speaker 4: Gonna leave with that.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: We're gonna get to Curvey on Tuesday, but I'm gonna
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  Speaker 3: go back to what I first met her. You know,
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  Speaker 3: this beautiful personality. It was nineteen ninety eight. I was
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  Speaker 3: co executive use of the Jamie Fox show, Jamie's on five.
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  Speaker 3: He just finished any given Sunday. The show was like
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  Speaker 3: one giant party. It was an amazing time because Black
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  Speaker 3: was taken off you know, had W B C W
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  Speaker 3: and UPN and all these things over care black programing.
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  Speaker 4: How did you get cash on the Jamie Fox Show.
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  Speaker 2: Oh that's a great question. We had a mate.
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  Speaker 5: First. We started out with this open call and it
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  Speaker 5: was every black woman of course that was in California
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  Speaker 5: was definitely at the audition and they were auditioning for
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  Speaker 5: all the roles, you know, and when they started to
• 9:28
  Speaker 5: do the you know, the weeding them down and bringing
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: the callbacks, I'll never forget my final callback. And actually, Rashana,
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  Speaker 5: I don't know if you know this, I was actually
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  Speaker 5: the youngest of all the women that were auditioning. They
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  Speaker 5: were much older and they so they they all knew
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  Speaker 5: they had the role because they were like, as she's
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  Speaker 5: too young, she can't do it anyway. But I'll never
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  Speaker 5: forget when I got an opportunity on that last callback.
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  Speaker 5: Jamie was there and I got the opportunity. He you know,
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  Speaker 5: Jamie took me off script.
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  Speaker 2: First.
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  Speaker 5: We had you know, we had a script that we
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  Speaker 5: had to learn, but Jamie took me off script and
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  Speaker 5: it was so wonderful.
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  Speaker 2: It was like going on this little roller coaster.
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  Speaker 5: Ride with him and wherever he went, I was right there,
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  Speaker 5: and wherever I went, he was right there. And we
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  Speaker 5: had such a great chemistry in that audition. It was
• 10:17
  Speaker 5: just an audition, it wasn't the show, and I believe
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  Speaker 5: that was where the blessing came in me being able
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: to be the one. I am so grateful. I can
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: never thank them enough. I can't thank him enough.
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
• 10:33
  Speaker 6: Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan MacDonald.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Now let's get back to why she came on this show,
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: My show Money Making Conversation, Elliot English, you know she
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: really came on it for one reason.
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  Speaker 4: All curb your enthusiasm.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, wow.
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  Speaker 3: Created by Larry David, who also created a Sciinfield Show,
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  Speaker 3: which was a tremendous hit a NBC.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: How did you get cast in the role of Auntie Ray?
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  Speaker 4: Is Auntie Ray? Correct?
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  Speaker 5: Auntie Ray? That's correct? Oh my goodness, thank you. That's
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  Speaker 5: another great question. The audition that I had for that
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: show was, I mean, really amazing. I had an opportunity
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: in that particular audition where I had to attack Larry David,
• 11:24
  Speaker 5: and so this is my first time meeting him. I mean,
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: this is the legendary Larry David. Like you said, he's
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: done Seinfeld, I mean, he is amazing. And so I
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: had to and he was and he, you know, was
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: saying to me, don't feel bad, don't just don't hold back,
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: just go ahead and do it, and I truly did.
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: I can't remember what our dialogue was, but I know
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: it was a scene about him doing something that I
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: had to stop him from doing, and I truly did.
• 11:51
  Speaker 5: When it came time for me to have to come
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: and take him down, I took him down and everybody
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  Speaker 5: in the room lost it.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: They aft so hard. And then after we were done,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: like are you okay?
• 12:03
  Speaker 5: Are you okay?
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: Are you Like I'm.
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  Speaker 5: Fine, I'm fine, He says, I'm glad you whip for it,
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  Speaker 5: and that I believe might be exactly why I was
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: blessed to be Auntie Ray.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Let's work down the show because I know Kid Widley,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: good friend of mine long has done the show, and
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: I've had on the show talking about the structure. Before
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: we get into other characters, JB's smooth character and vificult
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Fox character.
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: Rememberable characters on this series, as is your character? How
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: does it work?
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  Speaker 3: How does because they say it's improvisational, how does how
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: did you get a script at all to do the
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: show Coby Enthusiasm.
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: No, we do not get a script. We get would
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: they tell us, like of what they want the scene
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: to be about, so we at least have an idea
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: of what we're going to be doing and what the
• 12:46
  Speaker 5: scene is going to be about. But once we start
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: the scene, once they say action, it's dialogue that is
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: coming raw from us.
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  Speaker 2: However, what I love about.
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  Speaker 5: That is my training ground for improv was in theater,
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: and I'll never forget I think I was. Was I
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: still nineteen, or maybe I had finally turned twenty, But
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: I got to work with this woman who she's a
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: legendary actress. Her name was Peggy cast and Peggy Cast
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: I had seen also growing up as a kid with
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: those old black and white movies when she played in
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: Auntie Maine. She was the secretary Agnes Gooch, and so
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: I actually got to start in a production called Nonsense
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: with her. So first of all the intimidations of playing
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: opposite this legendary actress, and then we were at the
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: fordth Theater in Washington, DC that they kept exactly the
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: same as it was, and the the what is it
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: that balcony where President Lincoln was shot? I had to
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: play to that every night, so that was like really intimidating.
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: But the one thing that was happening, because she was
• 13:51
  Speaker 5: an older actress, she started going up on her lines
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: and I had to be the one because it was
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: most of our scenes were together to bring her back.
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: So I had to learn how to make sure I
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: did my dialogue but created dialogue to get her back
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: on track and make sure that the audience was none
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: the wiser. No one knew that I was doing that,
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: and that was my training ground for improvisation. And then
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: when we were doing the Jabie Fox Show, you guys
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: would let us do the script right and once we
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: got the script landed, you let us play and that
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: was so much fun. That was my next experience of improving.
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: And like I said, I also did the improvisation with
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: Jamie for the audition and so when by the time
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: I got here this he gave us the playground. It
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: was just a playground to just improv. And Larry David
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: is so generous. I mean he is so kind and
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: he just he lets you go. He doesn't stop you.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: He lets you go. You just keep going, going, going
• 14:54
  Speaker 5: until he says stop, sometimes if it's too far. But
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: it's wonderful to do that improv. And I noticed that
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: even when we were doing the Jamie Fox Show, a
• 15:03
  Speaker 5: lot of the things that we were able to do
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: with our improv, you guys ended up having it in
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: the cut and I was excited about that. So we know.
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: It's a couple of things. I want to bring up,
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: Eliot about you that a lot of people.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: Out there want to not just act, but want to
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: do things in life and they and they tend to
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: allow fear the unknown. Like you moving to New York.
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: You change your comfort zone to move New York. You
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: know what I'm saying, Because it wasn't like I had
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: to move to Houston, New York. I didn't want to
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: move to New York. I didn't want to move to
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: LA but I had to for my career. And then
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: you talk about improving with Jamie Fox, you talk about
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: improv and Larry Davis, those are uncomfortable moments. How could
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: you advise people to push past those uncomfortable moments?
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: Wow? That's a great question.
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: Most of us who find ourselves in this entertainment, especially
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: acting career, we've been doing it all of our lives.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: We've been play acting since we were kids, right, And
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: so you let yourself go back there, you revisit that
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: time when you were playing with your siblings and you
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: guys created the scene or you created the story.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: It's like, I'm gonna play this character.
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  Speaker 5: I'm gonna play it, but we didn't call it that
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: because I didn't know that back then. I was when
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: I was growing up in our backyard. The one thing
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: I used to do, we would play what was called church,
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: and I would always be the preacher and I would
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: give the sermons. And so all I was doing was
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: mimicking what I saw, mimicking what I saw. So we
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: were when children that are very what do you call,
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: I guess, observant because we watched the adults and oftentimes
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: for me too, when I was growing up, you know,
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: there was.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: This rule of children should be seen and not heard.
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: So because we couldn't talk a lot, we had to
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: watch a lot, and we've got to listen a lot,
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: and and just do that observing and then just let
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: yourself be free and have fun.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: It is so wonderful.
• 17:06
  Speaker 5: If you go in thinking I gotta think this through
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: and you're gonna you'll it'll it'll, it'll block you, It'll
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: block your creativity. You gotta let your creative side come
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: through and just have fun. It's not easy. I'm not
• 17:19
  Speaker 5: gonna pretend it's easy. It is work. It is definitely work.
• 17:24
  Speaker 5: But if you let yourself go and let go of
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: the inhibitions and just have fun. Now, I remember here,
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: here's the story when see when I was growing up.
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: Of course, remember I said my dad was a pastor, right,
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: so we couldn't curse.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: Before my dad became a pastor, we heard our relatives
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: cursing all the time, so we knew curse words.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: But and so we would practice.
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: Actually when our parents left home, we were practice cursing
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: on each other. So when I did curb your enthusiasm,
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: and I had to do that line, David, when we
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: were out there just carrying on.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: When we were when they said cut, I.
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: Would go back and a room, and like I was
• 18:01
  Speaker 5: shaking and nervous because I was like, Okay, I'm gonna
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: get in trouble. Like Elliott, you're a grown woman, you're
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: not home. Your parents are not going to get upset
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: with you. It's okay, it's not you. You're portraying a character.
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: It's not something I run around doing every day of
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: my life.
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: But you know, when you raised a certain way and
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: you talk skill set and being respectful, I admire that
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: and so and I can understand you saying you didn't
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: want to make them believe that all that training, all
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: that work they getting poured into you, that you went
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: out there and just forgot about it, became disrespectful, that's
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: what you was talking about.
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: And I understand that.
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: But you had some characters on the show that you
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: worked for did not care about what they say.
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: I'm talking about JB.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: Smooth, I'm talking about visiting for Fox, and I want
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: to just talk about the importance of your you guys
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: character on Curve enthusias I always knew about Curve Enthusiasm,
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: but it wasn't until you guys, guys on the show
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: started watching them. Do you realize the impact of what
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: y'all roles or y'all characters played in the success of
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Curby Enthusiasms?
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: Do you know?
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: Probably not to the greatest extent, but I have heard
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: people say that that he definitely he got a bigger audience,
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: especially the African American community right when he brought the
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: blocks on and that eleven and we.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Were funny though, don't get me wrong, now, you know,
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: coming into his house not wanting to move, y'all, it
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: was like it was unbelievable.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: But Larry David played the straight.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Man so well and he didn't even move and Vibica
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: Fox and the relationship.
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: I'm just saying is that it was so funny.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: It was needed because you know, in this business Eliot's dad,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: as black actors and actresses, we tend to get type cast,
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: we tend to not be in these type of roles.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: And this is a show that not only broaden their audience,
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: but broaden your audience, Yes, your level of respect in
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: the industry.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: Talk about that.
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: Oh my goodness, it was absolutely amazing. First of all,
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: having working with JB. Smooth that you know, not only
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: is was he Auntie Ray's nephew, He's like my next nephew.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Remember Jamie was my first television nephew. Now JB.
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: Smooth my nephew. I loved working with JB. Smooth and
• 20:20
  Speaker 5: still do because we as the Black family. We instantly
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: became a family. Like you said, I had Vivica Fox
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: who played Loretta, my niece. I had oh my goodness, JB.
• 20:29
  Speaker 5: Smooth who played Leon.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: My nephew. And then I had a great niece and nephew.
• 20:33
  Speaker 5: I think his name was Nick Nick Nervi's I think
• 20:36
  Speaker 5: was the baby's name, and he played Darryl. And then
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: the little girl who played Kesha, her name was Carla Jeffrey,
• 20:41
  Speaker 5: and we were we became an instant family. Because what
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: I loved was when Larry used that opportunity. Remember we
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: had the Katrina Hurricane. Katrina was an atrocious thing that
• 20:54
  Speaker 5: we had to go through, and so he took an
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: experience and decided, let me take a displaced family because
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: that was what was happening at that time too. A
• 21:03
  Speaker 5: lot of people were displaced a lot of people lost
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: their homes and they were having to move or people
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: were having to take them in and so and it
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: was truly two different cultures.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: You talk about a culture clash.
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: You know, the Blacks they were coming from their you know,
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: southern town where they had just had just something to
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: t you know, a traumatic experience for them, and they
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: were being saved by this guy who brought them into
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: his home, and the beauty of JB. Smooth character Leon.
• 21:32
  Speaker 5: Leon didn't come from the southern town that they came from.
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: He was already living in California, but when he found
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: out that his auntie and his cousin they were living there,
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: he moved into and that's when it really just became amazing.
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: And yes, Larry David, oh my god, God bless him.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: Awesome, awesome, awesome.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: I mean I remember the Hurricane Katrina, and I was
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: going through my memory bank and I forgot jabe Be
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: was really the one who's saying bag because Larry was
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: trying a good deed.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: It was yes, he who clean clean in and.
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: Messed it all up for everybody because he was scamming everybody.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: Yes, yes, yes, and yes. And then he ended up
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: being Larry's best friend. Can you believe it? Larry ended
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: up datings. I loved it.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: I loved it when we talk about this industry and
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: having Lungeerviy and I want to wrap this up.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: I want to keep him.
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: Thank you for allowing me to discuss your journey and
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: the final seasons and Curby enthusiasm.
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna miss you. But right now you have a
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: new series, a YouTube series.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: It's called My Sister's and Me, a half hour multi
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: camera comedy that crosses three distinct generations. Tell us about
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: that and why are you doing it?
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: Oh?
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: My goodness.
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: Matty Carruthers, who you know. She also worked on the
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: Jamie Fox Show. And when Maddy was working on the
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: Jamie Fox Show, she and I became very very close
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: and very good friends, and we used to talk about
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: all the time, often about wanting to create a project
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: for me. I wanted us to create a project that
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: she and I could work on together, and so we
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: ended up being able to do that. And I'm talking
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: about Maddie. It truly is an awesome director, Rashan. I mean,
• 23:15
  Speaker 5: she started her career. I don't know if you know that,
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: she started her career with the iconic Norman Lear and
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: so when she got us, she's talking about directing.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Us with that show. It was just amazing.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: And the storyline, which was wonderful for me, was that
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: there were these black sisters, vivacious, ageless black sisters who
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: had to live under the same roof without killing each other.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: And my character, I played the me and my sisters
• 23:45
  Speaker 5: and me right, I'm the baby sister of the bunch.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: So my character, who thought.
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: You know, now that my older sisters moved out, I
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: can now have my life. My bossy sisters are no
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: longer around, and I can go on with my life.
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: Well then they come back into my life and now
• 24:01
  Speaker 5: they are with their bossy attitudes and everything else. And
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: then it goes on from there. Guess what, I feel
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: like I'm a kid again. I feel like I can't
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: do anything. So you, everybody, I know, everybody can relate
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: to that, whether you've got to, even if even I
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: know a guy was telling me about his big sisters
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: when he was a little boy, and he his mother
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: told him, you're going to be the man of the house,
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: and you have to go be the man at the house.
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: And so he goes to his sisters and tells them
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: I'm the man of the house. And he says, she
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: punched him and knocked his teeth out. So everybody is
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: gone something with these older siblings. And so that's where
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: the real beauty and the fun comes in. And then
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: we got to figure out how to live together without
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: killing each other. And so I'm excited about that.
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: What's the future. What's the future for you?
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: A young small girl from coming to him byway up
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: Atlanta through New York in LA. You know you've done
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: Dan misbehavior, You've shown that you can do broadwood, You've
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: shown you can do sitcom. You've shown that you can
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: you can handle them stage of improv and scripted theater.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: Now you producing and launching your own YouTube show in January?
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: What is the future? Twenty twenty four is here?
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: Oh my goodness, and I'm I excited about twenty twenty four. Okay,
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: thank you so much for asking that question. And I
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: will preface it with I don't know if you knew
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: that in twenty eighteen, I dropped everything because I had
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: to come home and make sure my mom was okay.
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: I had to take care of my mom, and I
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: ended up becoming it changed.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: It was.
• 25:35
  Speaker 5: I thought I was just going to be come here,
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: make sure I was a companion, make sure you know,
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: she didn't wander off, make sure somebody was there with
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: her all the time. Well, she ended up getting an
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: infection in her toe and her big toe, and it
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: created the whole trajectory of why I came here changed.
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: I ended up becoming her nurse. I had to learn
• 25:54
  Speaker 5: how to change dress wounds. I had to make sure
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: she was at the hospital. I was staying in the
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: hospital with her with however long she was there, I
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: was there. I never left her side. And so my
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: mom transitioned in twenty twenty, and so that I had
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: to take the rest of twenty twenty, you know, And
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: that was when thank god, it wasn't COVID, you know,
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: And so yeah, she didn't it wasn't COVID that took
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: her out and we were able to keep her protected
• 26:20
  Speaker 5: from that. So then in twenty twenty one, I needed
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: to process that. And so in twenty twenty two, I
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: was blessed with the opportunity. I am a member of
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: the Sigma Gamma Row. I got to give my sisters
• 26:32
  Speaker 5: a shout out. So we had our boulet in twenty
• 26:38
  Speaker 5: twenty two, and it was our one hundredth anniversary, and
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: so thank you so much, and so I sort of
• 26:45
  Speaker 5: like decided to get my feet wet. I ended up
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: being able to go. We had it in Indianapolis, Indiana,
• 26:51
  Speaker 5: which is where the original for started the sorority, and
• 26:55
  Speaker 5: I did workshops. I did workshops for the kids. I
• 26:59
  Speaker 5: was also, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. My sister was saying
• 27:02
  Speaker 5: something to me. What happened in seven? Original seven?
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: She said?
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: She corrected me, she's a sorrow, she corrected me. She said,
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: the original seven, not the original four.
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: So forgive me.
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna keep this in there.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna keep this moment in there because this needs
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: because all scream sorrow, check it, all scream, get it right,
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: this moment in it.
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: Don't worry about So I love this.
• 27:28
  Speaker 5: Excuse me, seven not four.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: I remember Megati five fraternity, so I know you go,
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: you know, you gotta get those facts right, Rashan, you
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: know what I'm talking about, not for it's seven.
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: So thank you, my sorrows. But so then look, don't
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: let me lose my train of thought though. Anyway, what
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: was happening at that time, Rashaan was kurb was looking
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: for me, and I didn't know. The moment I stepped
• 27:57
  Speaker 5: out to do something, they were looking for me. And
• 28:00
  Speaker 5: right after I finished and I came back from the
• 28:02
  Speaker 5: Boulet our one hundredth anniversary, which was amazing, It went awesome.
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: I ended up going in and filming this season of
• 28:11
  Speaker 5: Curb Your Enthusiasm. So when you ask that question, what's
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: next for me? You know my mom who is still
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: my heart, She's still my everything, and for her, she
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: tells me the sky is the limit. She's like, you can,
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: and you can go beyond the sky, go ahead and shoot.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: So I'm back. I guess what I would say.
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: Eliot's back, like Antiray is back, and I'm ready now
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: to embrace it and to really do what I love,
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: every aspect of it. My singing, my acting, my dancing,
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: my writing. I still love to write. So as long
• 28:43
  Speaker 5: as I'm my heavenly father gives me breath to live,
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: I want to be everything he created me to be
• 28:51
  Speaker 5: and do everything he created me to do, so that
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: when it is done, all said and done, I get
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: to hear my father say, well done. You're good and
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: faithful servant. And I am looking forward to that, so
• 29:05
  Speaker 5: thank you so much.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Content is keen, but more importantly you are Queen. You've young,
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: longevity in this business and good luck, and I can't
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: wait to see Kirby and three have the More importantly,
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: sisters and me premiering in January on.
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: Your January eighteenth on YouTube, that we're going to do
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: some We're going to re releasing webisodes of the show
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: on YouTube January eighteenth, twenty twenty fourth.
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: Thank you for coming on Money Making Conversations, Mastercline.
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: Thank you for having me and good Load and God
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: bless thank you you too, God, Please.
• 29:39
  Speaker 7: Thank you for joining us for this edition of Money
• 29:42
  Speaker 7: Making Conversations Masterclass. Money Making Conversations Masterclass with rough Shan
• 29:47
  Speaker 7: McDonald is produced by thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. More
• 29:51
  Speaker 7: information about thirty eight fifteen Media Inc. Is available at
• 29:55
  Speaker 7: thirty eight to fifteen media dot com.
• 29:57
  Speaker 6: And always remember to lead with your gifts.