Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture
Welcome to "Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture," where we delve into the essence of branding beyond the surface sheen. A brand is more than just a logo or a slogan; it's a reflection of identity, values, and reputation that resonates within our cultural landscape. Enjoy as we peel back the layers to uncover the raw, authentic stories behind the people and products that shape our world.
This isn't your average corporate podcast. Join Tom Frank, partner and chief creative officer at Merrick Creative, Mickey Factz, Hip Hop Artist and Founder and CEO of Pendulum Ink, and Jeffrey Sledge, a seasoned music industry veteran, for "Unglossy" as they get to the heart of what truly drives individual and organizational brand . In a world where where image is carefully curated and narratives meticulously crafted, we're here to explore the moments of vulnerability, pivotal decisions, and creative sparks that fuel the relationship between brand and culture.
Get ready for a thought-provoking journey into the heart and soul of branding – the unscripted, unfiltered, and truly Unglossy truth. Tune in to "Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod and join the conversation.
Unglossy is produced and distributed by Merrick Studios. Let your story take the mic. Learn more at https://merrick-studios.com
Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture
Keenan Scott II: Poetry, Passion, and Broadway Dreams
In this week's episode of Unglossy, Tom and Jeffrey sit down with Keenan Scott II, a prolific playwright, poet, actor, director, and producer from Queens, New York. Keenan delves into his artistic journey, beginning with his early passion for visual arts and comic books, and transitioning into poetry and performance as he navigated his formative years in Maryland. His experiences at open mic nights in D.C. were pivotal, shaping his creative expression and laying the groundwork for his future in theater. Keenan also discusses the genesis of his renowned play, "Thoughts of a Colored Man," which started as college monologues aimed at authentically representing Black experiences absent from mainstream theater.
The conversation further explores the complexities and challenges of bringing a play to Broadway. Keenan sheds light on the logistical and financial hurdles, including navigating the influential theater families that control Broadway venues. Despite these challenges and the abrupt end to his play's run due to COVID-19, Keenan's work continues to make a significant impact. Looking ahead, he shares his excitement for future projects through his company, Project Toy Entertainment, aiming to fuse various artistic mediums and empower new creative voices. His advice to emerging artists—to believe in themselves and embrace perseverance—is a testament to his journey and dedication to the arts.
"Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture," is produced and distributed by Merrick Studio and hosted by Merrick Chief Creative Officer, Tom Frank, hip hop artist and founder of Pendulum Ink, Mickey Factz, and music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to hear this thought-provoking discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://unglossypod.buzzsprout.com/
This week on Unglossy.
Speaker 2:We had Mack Wiles you know, Mack Wiles yep. Legendary. You know what I mean. You know from the Wire to 90210, red Tails, you know, the list goes on. So in my mind we had an all-star cast, I think we had the greatest ensembles ever assembled on Broadway.
Speaker 1:From the top. Yeah, I'm Tom Frank, I'm Mickey Fax.
Speaker 3:And I'm Jeffrey Sledge.
Speaker 1:Welcome to Unglossy decoding brand and culture. I'm Tom Frank, partner and chief creative officer at Merit Creative. This is Mickey Fax, hip-hop artist and founder and CEO of Pendulum Inc. And that is Jeffrey Sledge, a seasoned music industry veteran who has worked with some of the biggest artists in the business. We're here to explore the moments of vulnerability, pivotal decisions and creative sparks that fuel the relationship between brand and culture. Get ready for thought-provoking journey into the heart and soul of branding the unscripted, unfiltered and truly unglossy truth. Meghan Markle now has a show. Yeah, that is talking about homemaking. Yes, you don't know about this?
Speaker 3:yes, you don't know about this?
Speaker 1:I don't know about this.
Speaker 3:She cooks on there and you know she has a garden and all. It's just like martha stewart, but that's bigger yeah, it's huge, bigger than martha stewart, bigger bigger, it's huge pause.
Speaker 4:So that's what that's. When I saw the plant in the back, it reminded me of martha stewart's plant in the back. It reminded me of martha stewart's um segment called it's a good thing, okay, and she would go, you know, across the country, I guess, finding out things that work well for your home. My mom would watch it every you know morning on sundays.
Speaker 3:You know your mom's probably watching megan markle shit that show was megan markle.
Speaker 1:I still think of her as the uh the lawyer on uh, I'm not she's way past that shit.
Speaker 3:That's over.
Speaker 1:I'm just watching it. Right now, I'm finally watching this show. What's it called?
Speaker 4:again.
Speaker 1:I'm blanking on Suits, suits, yeah, suits is a good show, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Nah, Meghan's lit.
Speaker 4:I've never seen Suits. I've been watching Daredevil. How was that daredevil?
Speaker 1:it's on netflix. How is it? Well, it's on disney, plus actually, a lot of cursing. You mean the actual like series, not the movie the series yes yeah, I've never seen the series series is amazing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, it's a. You know, I think tom would like it. It's you what you like, did you? Watch invincible it's the first season I did. Um, I gotta get into the second and third season, mainly because it's just me watching it alone. My wife does not want to it's violent.
Speaker 1:It's dope, though it's mad, it's violent it's a cartoon violence oh, a cartoon violent though like, but it's ridiculous violence like I don't know if I want all that violence in my life it's like mortal combat, but like superheroes yeah, yeah, yeah, ripping spines out and all that
Speaker 4:type of shit ripping hearts out, yeah all that, yeah, brains blowing up blood everything yeah, it's crazy is it very, is it very theatric?
Speaker 1:yeah yeah, it actually is it's which leads me into this week's guest, which, unfortunately, mickey, you were. You were not here. You're out heavily promoting your new project, the dean's list, volume one, volume one.
Speaker 4:Tell us about that uh, you know a couple of the graduates um at pendulum inc. You know we put a whole project together wu-tang style, kind of curated the entire thing. And you know a lot of mcs and producers send me beats so you know I use those beats to put this project out and everybody's happy about it. It did pretty well on the charts, so I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Now, is this an album or a mixtape?
Speaker 4:So, because of how quickly we did it it was really a mixtape. Not a lot of choruses on here, maybe about five or six, but we did it so quickly. We do have an album in production. I'm just waiting on some big celebrity features to send in their verses and then we're going to put that one out. What?
Speaker 1:is. That is that volume two no, it's called something completely different, so this is that to look forward to this.
Speaker 3:One's just bars people just spitting.
Speaker 4:This is yeah, yeah it's, it's some concept stuff, but mostly it's bars, you know, just to get people involved. But so talk to me about the podcast episode that I've missed.
Speaker 1:That you missed. Well, I'll tell you what you would have enjoyed this guest knowledge of poetry, hip hop and certainly comics.
Speaker 3:He started as a slam poet yeah.
Speaker 1:Really. Yes, he started as a slam poet. Yeah, really.
Speaker 3:Yes, he was like he was big in it, big in that world. He was looking forward to meeting you. He's a guy I actually met through Saint Really. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Saint came up in this conversation. You came up in this conversation. He was a big fan.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Couldn't wait to meet you I you up in this conversation. He was a big fan. Yeah, couldn't, couldn't wait to meet you I. You know I feel bad again. We were scheduled for a specific time and then that time got moved at the last minute and I was already in in the thralls of something else the thralls yes, but I feel bad now. This guy's, he, he's somebody I don't want to say.
Speaker 4:He was a fan, he was a supporter, yeah, he was a supporter I'm a fan of his now I can tell you that after listening to him, yeah I mean, I think you become a fan of everybody that we bring up you know what?
Speaker 1:why not? Yeah right, why not? Why not love, it's nothing wrong it's nothing wrong with that in my opinion, it's nothing wrong with that. Why not nothing wrong?
Speaker 4:with that. So what else did you guys?
Speaker 3:talk about. We talked about. You know his career he talked about because he wrote this play called Thoughts of a Colored man. It was on Broadway. It's a big play Really, but it got cut short because of COVID. They only had a three-month run and then Broadway shut down. But they were getting a massive buzz. They had a big artist, angela Bassett, and people like that came to the play Mary, it was bubbling, it was going crazy. I found out later because I didn't realize that I actually went to college with his dad, really.
Speaker 1:It was a wild episode.
Speaker 3:He connected us and stuff and we talked about dad and yeah.
Speaker 4:Can we bring him back?
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you anybody who listens to this thing. If you don't get anything out of it, do so for the conversation about Broadway.
Speaker 4:I found it.
Speaker 1:I found it immensely informative. Yeah, how Broadway, howway, actually works. We're not gonna tell you, mickey, you gotta listen to the episode to to thoroughly understand it absolutely so right before you know it's interesting and I know we're gonna get right into this.
Speaker 4:I know the people are excited about this. Right before the pandemic, lupe and I were working on a broadway play together. Really, what happened? The pandemic?
Speaker 1:but I mean, I mean you could have finished it, you could have continued it on, I wish, uh. But they just kind of dissolved the whole thing, like we were working on at the armory the pandemic.
Speaker 4:But I mean you could have finished it. You could have continued it on, I wish, but they just kind of dissolved the whole thing Like we were working at the Armory. Do you know where the Armory is, jeff? I think it's like on Park Avenue and like 77th.
Speaker 3:I don't know that Armory. I know the ones up in Harlem. I know the Armory in Harlem and the one in Washington Heights.
Speaker 4:I don't know the other one we were at the armory and we were there with like two huge Broadway screenwriters and we were putting together this. It was like this apartment building and every floor represented a different person. They had their own floor and every person had their own style. So I was helping lupe kind of put together how would this work over specific beats. And we were writing this stuff together and then the pandemic hit. Like I still have pictures of the stuff. I have like everything we were working. This was going to be like a musical. This was going to be a musical on broadway. We're working on it together. I think we got to pick this back up.
Speaker 1:I would love to pick it back up.
Speaker 4:We got the connections.
Speaker 1:Now let's go, let's do it. I'm in, I want to win. What do we win for the greatest musical ever, tony A Tony.
Speaker 4:A.
Speaker 3:Tony, get a Tony.
Speaker 1:I still want a Grammy, but I'll take a Tony.
Speaker 4:I'll take a Tony, I'll take anything at this point.
Speaker 1:Hey yo.
Speaker 4:Hey yo.
Speaker 1:On that note, let's dive in. Playwright, poet, actor, director and producer, the wildly talented Mr Kenan Scott II. Unglossy is brought to you by Merrick Creative, looking to skyrocket your business's visibility and drive growth. At Merrick Creative, we solve your brand and marketing woes With big ideas, decades of experience and innovative solutions. We'll draw in your target audience and keep them hooked. Remember, creativity is key to success. Partner with Merit Creative and unlock your brand's potential. Learn more at meritcreativecom. And now back to the show. Today's guest is Kenan Scott II. Queens-born playwright, poet, actor, director and producer. His work has electrified stages from the National Black Theater to Woolly Mammoth, culminating in the Broadway run of Thoughts of a Colored man at the Golden Theater. A 2021 TED Fellow and founder of Project Toy Entertainment, keenan fuses childhood wonder with fresh, thoughtful, provoking storytelling across theater, tv, film and more. We are excited to explore his remarkable journey, including his upcoming musical the Return of Youngboy, and discover how he continues to push creative boundaries on every stage. Welcome to Unglossy, mr Kenan Scott.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3:Pleasure how you feeling man.
Speaker 2:I'm good man, listen, I can't complain, just working.
Speaker 3:Rocking.
Speaker 1:Rocking and rolling.
Speaker 3:So before we get started, fun fact, fun fact. I went to college Morgan State University with Kenan's father.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I thought you were going to say with Kenan and I was going to be like damn, kenan looks a lot younger than you, Jeffery.
Speaker 3:No with Kenan's father, Kenan Sr.
Speaker 2:Kenan Sr.
Speaker 3:In school we were pretty close. I mean no disrespect to Kenan's mom, but Kenan's dad dated a girl.
Speaker 3:Oh God, here we go, kenan's dad dated a girl that was oh God, here we go. Kenan's dad dated a girl that was very close, close friends with a neighbor of mine Literally lived across the hall. So Kenan and this girl, who will remain nameless because you know, used to come like, be at me and my roommate's crib like daily, hanging out, drinking, talking shit. You know college shit. You know college shit, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, keenan was my guy man. He said he passed away fairly recently but but I had lost touch with him over the years. And then I met keenan, the second via via saint, who you've heard yeah, yes, yes and I'll tell that story.
Speaker 3:But I didn't know the connection. I just met this dude named keenan who wrote a play that was about to open on Broadway. I was like, oh bet. He offered me tickets. The girl was dating at the time. I was like, bet, hell, yeah, I'm going to go. I had no idea. And then I don't even remember how I found out, but it was much, much later. It was like after I went to that.
Speaker 1:The name was exactly the same.
Speaker 3:You know, it's New York, we've got the same name, that's true. That's true. And then I was like wait a minute, what? Oh no, I have a Morgan State group chat and somebody in the group chat said you know, keenan's son's doing a play. And I was like wait, what's the play called? And it was like Thoughts of a Color man. I was like I went to college with your father, fortunately because, like I said, you know, sadly he passed away not long ago, but fortunately Keenan II put us in touch.
Speaker 1:Ah, so you got to get back out, reach out, back out to him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got to talk to him and catch up. We had a long conversation, man, it was a blessing.
Speaker 3:It was absolutely a blessing. It was absolutely a blessing and you know I have a relationship with his son who I'm very, you know, proud of and happy for. But I'm really glad that I got to talk to Keenan Sr Because, like I said, we had this. You know it was no beef with just college. You know you just go this way, that way, you just kind of lose touch, and I was, you know. So we got to catch up and I was really appreciative of that. We had like a two-hour conversation.
Speaker 3:We talked for a long time man.
Speaker 2:Good yeah, it wasn't supposed to happen that way.
Speaker 3:Then you know it was. It was. It was. Yes, I had went to the studio. Saint told me to come to the studio.
Speaker 3:He was working with A$AP Ferg at the time Saint invited me to the studio session Exactly, but we didn't know we were going to be there. We was all in the studio, we kind of talked. Then he was like, yeah, it's just opening up. Yeah, I called him. He's like yeah, I got you two tickets, man, come on down. And the shit the first one to play was phenomenal, which we get into, and it was like it's a big deal, like it was on.
Speaker 3:It is a big, it is a very big deal like it was backed by some really big producers, like it was a really big, but I'm taking, I'm, I'm taking, I'm talking too much. Let's start from the beginning.
Speaker 1:Let's, let's go back to Queens. Right, you're from Queens. How does a guy from Queens like where's the passion for storytelling? Where did that start?
Speaker 2:You know it's definitely been a journey. So you know, born and raised in Queens, you know my family's from South Jamaica. I grew up, went to school in Flushing. So you know that was like the origin of it all, right? Actually, my first love in life is visual arts. I wanted to go off and do like animation and I wanted to like draw comic books and that's what I wanted to do. That was like my lifelong dream, right? So then, eventually, after my parents separated, we ended up moving down to Maryland, outside of DC.
Speaker 1:We're at Maryland now. I'm in Maryland right now.
Speaker 2:Waldorf.
Speaker 1:Ah, not far. I'm in Annapolis right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, yeah, I'm very familiar, so you're close to like Bowie, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Real close to Bowie yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know, by high school, high school age, I'm down in Maryland. You know, heavy in sports, you know what I mean. Playing football, basketball, took basketball very serious, didn't really wasn't a performer, didn't consider myself a performer, and I started getting into poetry, just you know, just to myself. You know what I mean. Something you know journaling kept it to myself big love of hip hop, big hip hop head, my father originally being from the South Bronx. So having having it being handed to me in that way, that's right. He was from the Bronx, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, east Tremont. So I took that very serious. You know what I mean. So, honestly, you know, it kind of. It kind of came to me in an odd way at the time.
Speaker 2:I'm 15 years old. My sister, my older sister, she's 18. So she got a boyfriend that's into poetry and you know he's scared to go to DC by himself and go to the open mics. So he would see me, so he would see me writing around the crib. You know what I mean. And he was like, hey, um, you know, would you want to go to the club with me? You know I want to do this open mic thing and honestly, I just wanted to hang out. You know what I mean. I'm like I forgot my poem. 200 people.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I was like yo, I'm never doing this shit again, never doing this again. But you know me being a ball player, me being super competitive, I'm like you know what. Let me go back one more time, let me redeem myself, and then I'll be good. You know, then I'll lay it to rest and I'll never forget the feeling of going back and redeeming myself. I had studied for several months. I was like, all right, I got to get better, you know, started picking up some more literature. That's around the time I discovered, like Nikki, giovanni Langston Hughes and this is at the same time that it was like still black market at the time, but I had got my hands on Smack DVD at the time, but I had got my hands on.
Speaker 2:Smack DVD at the time, so that was new when I was in high school.
Speaker 4:So that was like you know, and that's when I first came across.
Speaker 2:Murder Mook Me and him about like a year apart, you know pretty much the same age and I'm like yo. Who is this young kid battling at this level? I've never seen, never heard. You know, in the projects in New York. You know I'm familiar and I'm like yo, that's dope, so I studied it. I studied that same time. New show, deaf Poetry Jam is new at the time.
Speaker 2:Now I go, I go out to my VHS store right and I get the tapes and now I'm studying. So I'm studying underground battle rap and you know the guys from Jersey, you know the city Philly guys. I'm studying deaf poetry jam. So now, when I go back to the club, now, now I kill it, I go back.
Speaker 1:So how long of a time between when you, when you, messed up until you went back and killed it?
Speaker 2:So I was 15.
Speaker 1:It was the fall, so my, my birthday is actually March, so I probably went away for about five, five to six months, so you got serious about this work, yeah, so by the time I went back I had just turned 16 and they went crazy, and I never forget the response to that.
Speaker 2:And then everybody was so surprised at how young I was.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was sneaking into these clubs. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't even supposed to be in these clubs that I was competing in, and I never forget, you know. You know, no facial hair, baby face, the whole nine. They're like yo, where'd you, where'd you? I sound different Cause I'm coming from New York and now I'm in DC.
Speaker 2:So now it's like where did you come from? How do you, how were you doing this? And I never forget that feeling. And then I started going back and that's when I fell into the underground poetry slam poetry scene in DC Wow.
Speaker 1:So how did? How do you go from the underground poetry to a Broadway? I mean a Broadway show. I mean we're not talking that's huge.
Speaker 2:Tell me about it. Um, you know it's, it's. You know the Trump cake, the journey, you know. So now, now I'm competing for several years, Right, so now, anywhere that, let me in. So now I'm, I'm, I created a name for myself in DC, so now it's like oh, let the young kid in.
Speaker 3:You popping, now you popping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so let the young kid in you know I wasn't drinking or anything like that yet. So they was like, hey, stay away from the bar, we'll let you. I'm like, listen, I'm just here to compete. You know, I wanted my own CDs selling them for $5 at the end, just doing my thing.
Speaker 2:And it kept me out the streets. I was like, if I'm doing this legally and this feels good, I'm going to stay here Because I knew what the streets really was, With members of my family and friends and all that. I wanted to stay clear of that.
Speaker 1:So is this more of a rap thing?
Speaker 2:or is it more poetry? I don't think I've ever been to one of these it's kind of like a combo of the two poetry, but it's kind of it's the same energy, it's the same. Yeah, it's aggressive poetry is different, like you know, like some open mics, like people read out of a journal yeah and the cliches, but like that's what I'm picturing. Slam poetry is you're, you're, you're, you're judged by judges in the crowd. You're competing against people. So I might not be personally talking about you, but I'm trying to outperform you.
Speaker 1:Got it.
Speaker 2:So it's so, it's very so, since it's competitive. It has that energy. It's very similar. A lot of a lot of battle. Mcs are actual poets as well, so people go between the two. So I do both as well. But when I was competing, I was doing slam poetry, so I did that for several years Now.
Speaker 2:it was time for college and I didn't want to go because I just told my mother, like yo, I'm trying to move back to New York, I'm trying to audition and become Denzel, like in two weeks I'm good Right, that quite didn't happen. You know, and I never forget I moved. You know and I never forget I moved. You know I came back to new york over that summer. My father drove me around to auto auditions and, um, I didn't make it into any schools. I fell on my face.
Speaker 2:schools was like you too green, you know, go away get some acting training and come back to us later, because I was going to like these big conservatories, right. So so then, like so my mother's. Like. You're not staying home, you're not working, you're getting out the house, call, call. Whatever that little school was that accepted you, you're going to that school.
Speaker 1:Call them back, yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was Frostburg State University.
Speaker 1:I know Frostburg well too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's my alma mater. Had the time of my life, if you know, it was definitely big on parties. Yes going parties. So I went away to school and, honestly, what kept me there was I was like all right, cool, what will keep me in school? That I won't drop out, because if I did a business major or something I would have got bored and didn't want to continue.
Speaker 2:So I was like, cool, I'm performing heavy, I definitely want to get into TV and film acting and break into the industry that way and show them that I can write as well. So somebody was like, hey, if you want to act for TV and film, you got to do theater. So I was like, all right, cool, I'll study theater. Never, never, thought about theater, never, no interest. I was like, all right, if it's going, if it's going to get me better on stage, then I'll do it. So I went to school to study acting. So while I'm there, you know and a lot of people think because of you, know what I've achieved in playwriting that I never went to school for writing, I never taken a writing class before for screenwriting or playwriting or anything, and I just, you know, put in my 10,000 hours, I would say. But as I was in school studying theater, I started getting put these plays in front of me that I just didn't relate to, I didn't see myself, I didn't see my community.
Speaker 2:It was like these great American dramas, but I'm like you know where the black folk at you know yeah. So honestly to me you know me coming from New York by way of Southern Maryland I had a homie in my program that was from DC, another one was from Baltimore and I was like listen, I'm going to write us some monologues so we can have some stuff that we can audition with that. We don't got to change who we are. We don't got to change who we talk.
Speaker 2:I'm going to write some stuff for us, and that small idea was the start of Thoughts of a Colored man. I started writing when I was 19 years old, when I was at undergrad.
Speaker 3:Now, how long did it take you, from 19 to get it to the point where it was ready to be shown on Broadway? How many years did you kind of have to do?
Speaker 2:many iterations From that many, many, I'm sure, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:From from that point to inception to Broadway was actually like 17 years. Wow, 17 years in between that time I produced it on my, my campus two years later. So at what 2021? As my senior project? I was like, hey, can I do this play? I've been writing the theater department's like cool, you can have the black box for a couple of days, and this is the point that honestly changed my career. I really, you know, at the time I thought it was ready, A lot had changed, but the first incarnation it was two years I had been working on it.
Speaker 2:Only my college roommates knew about it, you know what I mean, and they gave me the theater and I had no resources, they was like yeah, we'll give you the theater. You know, this wasn't in a budget, we're doing our own thing, you know, whatever. So and I didn't have enough black men in my department to do the play, to play all the characters.
Speaker 2:Because at any given time in my theater program there might've been three black men, including myself. So that's when I started putting on hats out of necessity, like, all right, cool, now I got to enlist my friends in the cast, right? So now I'm an acting coach. All right, cool, I need to promote it. All right, how do I get money? Let me go to all the student organizations. Let me go to the Divine Nine. I did shows for all of them. I opened up for all of them. Now it's time for you know, let's see if they got a little money for me.
Speaker 3:So I started raising money on campus I raised like maybe $900 at the time, but now not knowing at the time, but now I'm producing, because now I'm raising, yeah, what I've been realizing it.
Speaker 2:So I'm wearing all of these hats out of necessity. There's nobody to, you know, bring my vision to life. So now I turn into a director. That was my first time really directing, so all of these things kind of happened. And then once that at the time I was very much so studying the works of David E Talbert and Tyler Perry.
Speaker 3:Sidebar sidebar David Talbert went to Morgan with us.
Speaker 2:Morgan with y'all as well, correct, he was a friend of ours. He was a friend of ours on the yard.
Speaker 3:All world here, all world, y'all who?
Speaker 1:knew, it all started at Morgan State.
Speaker 3:It did world who knew it all started at morgan state it did.
Speaker 2:It's a lot, it's a lot of greatness there, yeah, yeah. So I'm studying those guys. I'm like all right cool, maybe I can do what they did right, maybe I can start in theater, you know, kind of like you know, raise the funds and it kind of you know, so I can own all of my own work. So really that's how I started. So at the time I really wasn't thinking broadway. I was thinking I'm trying to do what tyler, I'm trying to get my own money up and I'm trying to go get joint ventures, kind of like what he did with Lionsgate.
Speaker 2:So that's really the path I was following. So after college I was just renting out theaters and producing my own work independently. I would sell out shows, I would flip the money into my next show, I would borrow money from family, friends, turn them into investors, sell credit cards, and I did that for many, many years. So now, at this time, I'm back in New York and really the word starts catching on that I'm, you know that I'm doing. I'm doing these little shows Right Cause to them it was like you know you really not doing it at any you know notable theaters.
Speaker 3:And so my name is like in the community rooms and like you know, whatever church church. Church name it name it.
Speaker 2:I was there, you know. So, so, yeah, so, so that's what kind of so? In between that, while you know, I'm an educator, so I was teaching, I was substituting name, name a job, I did it retail, you know the whole nine and no 17 years. You know, then I would say around 17, 2017, my name started catching on in the city from all the work I was doing started snowballing, linked up with, you know, a producer. We set forth a plan that, hey, we think we can get this to Broadway. Finally, and finally, you know, went out of town, went to Baltimore, went to Syracuse, kind of launched that like an out of town tryout. We got the verbal, we got the verbal commitment from Broadway that we'll get a theater and we'll be able to premiere in 2020.
Speaker 1:So who actually does that? Who says you're going to be on Broadway? Is it a group or how does that work?
Speaker 2:Well, the Broadway theaters are owned by three different families.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So essentially they operate like landlords.
Speaker 3:What are the three families?
Speaker 2:The Schuberts.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:The Nederlanders and the Jujanssons.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:They got it on.
Speaker 3:Smash.
Speaker 2:Say that again.
Speaker 3:They got it on Smash. You got to go through one of them.
Speaker 1:One of them controls all of Broadway.
Speaker 2:Correct, correct so if you ever look on your ticket. Stub, if you ever look at the program. You'll see. You'll see Nederlanders, you'll see Schubert, you'll see their logo. So you know, of course they have teams and foundations and all yeah. So they're the ones that say yay and nay to you pretty much, because essentially people don't see it like this. But you're renting that Broadway house.
Speaker 3:You just rent it for a whole lot of money, you know so when you say renting it like, break that down, what does that mean? When you say you're renting a house, so essentially right.
Speaker 2:So I want to say there's about 41 Broadway theaters. Of course some of them are not changing their shows out. Lion King's not going away, hamilton, the Wicked's, you know move out, they just stay constant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the thing is unlike regional theater outside of New York there's a schedule. Hey, your play can only run for five weeks, that's it. The next one's coming in. We have a season of six, but Broadway, once again, you're a tenant. So if my tenant is still getting money ie Lion King, wicked you're not going anywhere, like it stays, and then other plays rotate. Some plays come for a limited engagement, like denzel right now. Denzel's only going to be there for 12 weeks, that's with their fellow joint yeah, with a fellow that that's limited.
Speaker 2:We know denzel's not going to be on broadway for five years consecutively right yeah, he's going to do his time, so, so it's like a rotating schedule. So essentially you know everybody's vying for those spots, so it's like, well, essentially you have to at it Like what tenant is going to yield me the most back?
Speaker 4:So you know I can.
Speaker 2:I can get a theater right, but let's just say, for example, beyonce says she wants to come to Broadway tomorrow. Who's who's going to get that spot?
Speaker 1:You are gone.
Speaker 2:Well, so so, so that's what makes it so hard. That's what I mean. So so, so, normally, so normally, essentially high levels of finance, but essentially you're renting the Broadway house, so are you physically renting it, though?
Speaker 1:If you don't mind me asking what is the breakdown? How does that work? Are you paying to be in there, or are they taking a chance on you and you guys are splitting the profit, or how does that all work?
Speaker 2:No, no, you have to pay, just like rent you have to.
Speaker 1:you have so you physically are paying rent okay and then of course everybody's deals a difference.
Speaker 2:But you know, out of a pie everybody's split goes with, goes where it does after that oh okay, so pretty much I didn't know any of this yeah, yeah. So part parts of the pie, you know, of course, go back to running costs. It goes back to the theater because it got to keep the lights on, okay you know, other than the other piece of the pie, of course go back to running costs.
Speaker 2:It goes back to the theater because it's got to keep the lights on, okay, and the other piece of the pie goes down to the whole producers, investors, creative team Actors and all of that stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wow, that's really interesting. I had no idea how it worked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, correct. So that's why it's also everybody's vying for a spot. That's what makes it hard, like you know, everybody can have a great play. You know you can have great personnel. Everybody can get an a-list star in their piece. You know which is the name of the game. So it's really about you know who has the best opportunity to do the best, you know, for ticket sales. And of course come a war season, so how?
Speaker 3:good, you didn't, if I remember correctly. If I'm wrong, you didn't have an a-list star in the play. You had great, great, great actors in the play, but it wasn't like a, like I said, like a Denzel or like a Sam Jackson or something like that. So how did you get this? How did you get that? How did you get the deal? Well, made them choose you to give you the theater on, give you the shot to put your play on Broadway.
Speaker 2:You know like I tell anybody for Broadway, so many stars have to align.
Speaker 4:You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean it's your producorial team. Of course it starts with the script, the story, the personnel scheduling and things of that nature, so it's not one thing per se. I think over the years I think broadway has leaned into more of like the a-list kind of like making sure that like an a-list name is on the marquee. That doesn't always have to be the case, and I just think we had. We had a great ensemble, we had a great story, we did great out of town and we kind of went through the you know the development that everybody has to go through and, uh, the stars just aligned for us when, when they did wow yeah so was there?
Speaker 1:like, I mean, this was obviously your first appearance on broadway with this, so was there I mean, was there a learning curve, like what did you, what didn't you know going into it? That you're like looking back at it, you're like you're gonna do better, right?
Speaker 2:now everything okay no, for for me, you know, um, I pride myself on business as an artist. I always knew I wanted to support myself and my family off my art. So I knew very early on that I had to have a certain level of business acumen. So for me, being an independent artist, I knew that game right. You know, clearly I wasn't dealing with the same budgets, you know I wasn't dealing with millions of dollars, like Broadway is. But I knew what it was to have a team, you know, to have a creative team to be able to rent out theater spaces for a certain amount of time, to be able to set ticket prices at a certain price, to be able to see a profit and all of those things. I understood that doesn't change. The numbers change, vastly change, but how to execute it really doesn't change. So really there was a big learning curve change, but how to execute it really doesn't change. So really there was a big learning curve. There was a big learning curve learning about all the moving pieces in Broadway, how it worked, the unions, the Broadway houses, who owns them, the developmental track that a lot of these pieces go, a lot of times, you know, to your average ticket.
Speaker 2:You know theater goer, you buying a ticket, you go into a show not realizing that show had to make. It had to go to the UK first to build momentum, then it had to go to Berkeley or it had to go to another, another state for a tryout to test things out. You know, to just like anything Right, like when TV shows have like audience tests, you know theaters, we have to do the same thing. We have to go out of town. We have to make sure we get a good response, maybe some good reviews from from out of-town papers, before the times kind of stamp you when you get into the city. So all of those things you have to do before you come back into the city. So it's like a whole journey. Usually. Typically they say it's about six to seven years average to get your piece to Broadway from the inception plan to get there.
Speaker 3:It's what reminds me of in my mind of the music business. You were an indie label it reminds me of in my mind of the music business. You were an indie label and you put out some records and they started to catch a little buzz. They started to sell to the point where a major label, which is the theaters and Broadway, decided to pick you up and give you a shot and give you a venture. It's very similar. There's a lot of differences, but the process of it is the same as like a TDE just putting out kind of records and they catch a little buzz and all of a sudden they get Interscope gives them a deal and all of a sudden Kendrick blows up. It's kind of a similar kind of path.
Speaker 2:It's similar. It's like even, if you notice, like one of the biggest names in Broadway, clearly. But Lin-Manuel Miranda, what he just did with the Warriors concept album Right did with the Warriors concept album right A lot of times musicals. They'll do that. That's just testing out how people are going to feel it, right.
Speaker 3:It's like, oh, let's put out-. So they did the music first.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Let's put out this whole concept album, let's see how people respond to it, let's work out the kinks, let's build the fandom around it so by the time we get it to stage, it's going to have a built-in audience of people, people can't wait yeah.
Speaker 2:They can sing along when they sit in the audience. So it's a lot of similarities to the music industry and for me that's how I learned it a little different, right, Like I was already studying the TV and film industry. You know, very early on I actually wanted to get into the music industry first. You know what I mean. So I was already studying, you know, have partners that have made it into the industry and things of that nature. So there is some overlap when it comes down to the business and how to execute on the vision, Because we all know it all comes down to the bottom line.
Speaker 3:Oh, sidebar, lin-manuel Miranda was my neighbor.
Speaker 1:I thought you were going to say he went to Morgan State as well.
Speaker 3:I was his neighbor because he grew up in a neighborhood. I used to live in Washington Heights area.
Speaker 2:Washington Heights is great.
Speaker 3:I used to work up there, yeah yeah, yeah, lin is genius area Washington Heights is great, I used to work up there. Lynn is genius. Lynn lives on Cabrini. I live on Overlook. Every night again I bump in you just kind of see him. He still lives up there because nobody bothers him up there. He's just a regular dude up there.
Speaker 1:He was born and raised.
Speaker 2:He's from the neighborhood.
Speaker 3:He's born and raised. He can go to the store, he can go to the park Nobody's tripping on him, so he never. I heard he said he's never going to leave that area because he can live a normal life and raise his family regularly up there. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's kind of like Spike with Brooklyn, right Like you know, his office has been a Fort Greene for what? 30, 30 years, 30 plus years.
Speaker 3:So yeah, yeah, normal he can go to the park, ain't nobody bothering him and his kids. Anyway, tom, what were you going to say?
Speaker 1:I have one last question about the Broadway, the actors. Are they the same actors that you used throughout? When you get to Broadway, is it a whole new show, a whole new batch of actors?
Speaker 2:It depends on the situation. It depends on the situation. My particular play is very unique in its journey that I was doing it independently. So in the 17 years I was doing it, you know 100 actors have come through the piece. But depending on the situation, depending on the business and who your personnel, your creative team is, the closer you get to Broadway, the closer you get to the actual team. You have A little bit of overlap from my regional runs, which is commercial, so not to count all my independent stuff, because that was just me on my independent grind.
Speaker 2:But to count my actual Broadway journey, which we was at commercial theaters, I would say there was a little bit of overlap of some people that we brought from when we was out of New York that we brought into Broadway, but I would say the cast was about 70% new once we got to Broadway. Two, two guys, two guys came along and really it just comes down. It just comes down to schedules.
Speaker 2:You know I was blessed. I think you know a lot of times it's unfortunate that. You know Black actors and creatives are viewed differently. You know my cast was filled with guys that were on number one TV shows. You know what I mean. Luke James is three times Grammy nominated. You know we had Da Vinci, which we premiered the same month that BMF did. You know what I mean Number one TV show. We had Mack Wiles you know, legendary.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. You know, from the Wire to 90210, red tails, you know, the list goes on. So in my mind we had an all-star cast, I think we had the greatest ensembles ever assembled on bro.
Speaker 2:he was to ask me um, but it was schedules. We talked to a lot of different people who ended up in a room was supposed to, because, between me and my director, what was very important for us was we knew we had the opportunity to get a great array of talent. Right, it's Broadway. That's a lot of other people's dreams just as well as it was mine, right? So the talent was going to be there. We really just wanted good spirited human beings that was going to leave their ego at the door, because Thoughts of a Colored man was a type of piece where it's not star driven, it's ensemble. Everybody's equal, everybody almost has the same amount of time on stage. So we needed guys that understood that mission and if we all came together for that belief that we was going to do great.
Speaker 1:How long did it run on Broadway?
Speaker 2:It ran for three months. Unfortunately, we got hit with COVID.
Speaker 1:You're right before COVID.
Speaker 2:So we had to shut down. Honestly, out of all the new plays on Broadway, we was the highest grossing when we had to shut down. We was doing tremendous, tremendous. So our run was supposed to be six months. We ended up running for three. When the Omicron variant had came out, it had wiped through the cast. I actually stepped in cast. I actually was on stage one night, which was great to be able to be up there with the guys before we shut down so I was able to step on stage with them.
Speaker 1:That's cool.
Speaker 2:A Broadway acting debut as well.
Speaker 4:And we'll be right back. Master the art of lyricism with Pendulum Inc. The first school for rap. Learn elite techniques through immersive lessons, real world exercises and guidance from hip hop icons. This is where MC sharpen their skills and glow boldly on the mic. Ready to level up, visit PendulumInccom and start your journey today.
Speaker 1:And now back to the show.
Speaker 3:I got COVID when I went to the play.
Speaker 2:See, yeah, it was crazy, it was very hard.
Speaker 3:It was a tough time to grow, yeah it was a tough time because it was like prime time COVID. I was in the audience coughing, trying to cover my mouth. People were looking at me funny you off and trying to cover my mouth.
Speaker 2:People were looking at me funny. You were that guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was that guy, you put me to reason. You know, yeah, but the play was phenomenal, thank you, thank you. Lying down the street, all the top critics would come in, oprah, and them would come in. It was a monster, it was crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, listen, the list goes on. It blew my mind. I'm a fan of all these people. I grew up watching people that was coming to the play which was beyond me. But yes, it will come back of course in all hopes of a revival. Um, it's been four years now, which I don't know where that time went, but it's been four years already and the beautiful thing is um, the plays are licensing now, so it's being done all around the us as we speak.
Speaker 2:So good wow, a show in memphis opens up tomorrow, so I'll be flying down there pretty soon to see that show. So we've been in multiple cities and schools and colleges since we left.
Speaker 1:How's that feel to like? You're going to go to Memphis. You don't really have a part of it per se, but to go to go there and see somebody put your vision to life, that's gotta be an incredible feeling.
Speaker 2:It's insane. Yeah, it's insane. You know what I mean. You know you don't think about licensing. Right, like we all. We go to plays, we see things, but not realizing, like when we go to shakespeare, shakespeare is done, thousands and thousands of times right. So to think that I'm in the lore of people wanting to do my work, it's it blows my mind, you know, seeing experiences that I had in queens in southern maryland. Now somebody, somebody in Memphis, is going to do it.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:And I see the guys. I still remember my college roommates that were in the original cast back in 2009. You know what I mean. So I still see my friends. I see my father. I see my grandfather up there on stage. I see my uncle. It's really mind blowing because I really that just was not the intention or the thought that that that me, from where I come from, that I would, I would ever get to Broadway. You, just as a New Yorker, you don't think about that stuff it's like oh, I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't sing and dance. I you know I'm probably never going to make a Lion King. You know Broadway's not for me, right yeah you don't think about that.
Speaker 2:You might get lucky as a kid to go to Broadway for a field trip or something like that. You don't. You don't think about that. You might get lucky as a kid to go to Broadway for a field trip or something like that. You don't. You don't think about that from the communities we come from. So just just to be able to be in this space and, more importantly, to be able to have created something that gives other young black men opportunities to see themselves reflected is very important to me, because that was my goal as an undergrad when I just said to my friends hey, I'll write you a monologue that you can do, don't worry about it.
Speaker 3:So, friends, hey, I'll write you a monologue that you can do, don't worry about it. So, to see that it's kind of transcended, what a story. But that the ethos of of theater is, is is beyond me and I'm and to your point, like in new york, like you said, we don't and this is a school play or something we don't usually do broadway. So when a play like yours comes out, like all the black folks come out because it's like finally, something's on on Broadway for us, Authentically.
Speaker 3:Authentically for us. So like that one we're puffed, they're raising his son. It was kind of the same Like we went. We went because like that's the one time that not to not to roughen up feathers, but it's like we go see cats or like you said, see cats, or like you said, or one of the death of a salesman. Right, it's almost like you in that theater, feeling like an outsider, kind of like like I'm here but I know this wasn't really written for me. I know it's a great piece of art, so I'm gonna watch this great piece of art, but I know nothing really is relatable to me besides the art of it in general. But when some play like, like, like yours, like those little color man comes out I'm watching it like, and I'm sure everybody else who went to see was watching like, like you said, oh, I know that guy. Yeah, like I don't know that guy.
Speaker 3:I don't know the actor, but I know that guy you know, that person, that that's like my uncle, like you said, that's like my father, that's like my brother, that's like my cousin, my college roommate or whatever it is. So it's a whole kind of different connection. So that play coming to Broadway and doing what it did before COVID sadly got in the way, was very important. I don't want to under stress enough how important that play was to black New York. It was very important for people to come out and see that. I'll ask one more question. So was there anybody who came to see it that you got like superstars, came out Like oh shit, they go, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, there's a couple. So so Angela Bassett, me and my wife was able to take a picture with Angela Bassett, which was crazy. Anna Wintour came she was there opening night. Felicia Rashad so those are the three. That was just mind-blowing. A lot of times when I see people, even if I'm a fan, I'm like I got that energy, like, hey, I want to work, let's work. But when you got Angela Bassett sitting in the audience, it's-.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, it's insane, that's crazy, it is that's insane.
Speaker 2:So, absolutely so. Those are the three that come to mind. There was many, many others, not to overlook anybody else. Mary J Blige came. I listened to her since I was a kid, you know what I mean. It's just so many names, man. It really was a time and I'm really humbled by it all. I really am.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:That? That's amazing, yeah, that's amazing. So tell us about then. Project Toys Entertainment.
Speaker 2:Is that birth from that, or has that always been kind of your company to harness all of this? So I've had a few companies over the years. You know trial and error, you know you start some things and you know so this, this is, this is my new brand. I actually started in in 2020. So around the same time. So really, I just wanted to have a space and a company that encompassed all the things that I love, right? So, outside of you know theater, tv and film. You know my love for passion and fine fashion and fine art and visual art. I really wanted to create kind of like a creative art studio that will soon be the hub of all the things that I love, like a creative art studio that will soon be the hub of all the things that I love.
Speaker 2:And me, I'm very producorial in my thinking and I love being able to put other people in positions. So you know, I want to have a team of directors and writers and other artists and like-minded people to be able to just create great work just to put out to the people. You know, sometimes I don't want to write everything. Sometimes I just want to sit back and produce and put the pieces together. Sometimes I say, hey, I want to write and act in this one. You know, sometimes I just want to direct. So, really, I just wanted to create a brand that really just encompassed all those things. And me being a lover of so many different mediums, I'm always seeing how I can blur the lines of what I do. Right, you know, far as many years ago, it's more commonplace now. You know, far as many years ago. It's more commonplace now.
Speaker 2:But when I first started independently doing my work, you know, I had a merchandise company in 2009. Right, you know, I had this idea like it's cool to go to plays. You slap the logo on the shirt. It's like, hey, I went to this great play.
Speaker 2:But you know me thinking and loving hip hop, streetwear and you know, coming from the era of, you know, the food booze and the Sean Johns and the fat farms and the Walker wears and you know, you name it I was like, well, what if I created clothes that, yes, it's inspired by the play, but what if you wanted to wear it outside of the? You know what if you just wore it just because it was a dope shirt or dope hoodie, and you might not even know it was from a play, right. So just thinking in that way, to where, you know, why can't I have a soundtrack for my play? Movies have soundtracks, you know. Why can't you know there might be playing, you know music in a play, but why can't I come up with an EP that's inspired by the play and that can serve as a soundtrack? You know, that might not be commonplace in theater, but I know it is in film. So, just so, I want to have a company that kind of like. You know, all the hands kind of wash each other, you know.
Speaker 3:That kind of commonplace. In theater, I mean Lin had Hamilton. You know what I'm saying. So I mean yours was in a musical, but you know it does happen.
Speaker 1:You can have a soundtrack?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know, and, like you said, you know I am working on a musical but, yeah, just seeing how I can blend all of those worlds and really just comes back to all the things I love, you know, and being able to create a production company where myself and others can really just fully flourish in the arts.
Speaker 1:And how's it been going so far? So you started it in 2021, you said 2020. 2020, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's going great. This is the year that I kind of really like launch, like with more branding, so I have my hands in. I have a couple of commercial projects that I'm that I'm producing my new solo show that's coming of the musical that you mentioned. I have a documentary that I'm also producing because that's really my goal to to be able to have my production company in those credits when you see my music I there you go.
Speaker 3:I gotta give you props, because I never heard the word producer, was it?
Speaker 2:we say producerial, producerial yeah, I never heard that before.
Speaker 3:So props for that. I'm gonna start using that.
Speaker 1:You're gonna take that from him, aren't you?
Speaker 3:I'm running with that.
Speaker 1:I'm running with that now, before we get to the new musical which I want to hear about, yeah, yeah, I I gotta ask you about the ted fellowship, because that fellowship, because that's kind of interesting to me, how did that come about?
Speaker 2:Blew my mind. One of my Broadway producers, bless her heart, diana Domenna. She nominated me for it. For those who don't know, as we all know, we've all watched the TED talk before. I've watched many. There's hundreds of them, but they have a sector called the TED fellows. So essentially it's a community kind of like a fraternity kind of that they've created inside of Ted where they get people that are budding or just on a cusp of doing really, really great things in their career and kind of really have a mission to kind of change their part of the world right. So, where they give you resources, they have cohorts every year, very, very eclectic, the most eclectic, most international thing. Trust me when I tell you I've ever been a part of and really to provide you resources, right Like PR, they try to connect you with other resources in your field, with other people. You're automatically connected to all the TED fellows that came before you.
Speaker 1:That's cool.
Speaker 2:There was a TED fellow five years ago that was in theater. They would connect us so to see if that we can work, and then, of course, a part of that, they all allow us to do a TED talk in our field.
Speaker 1:So how big is that fellowship? How many people are? How many active fellows are there?
Speaker 2:Oh, I think my class brought us over. I want to say 500. Cause it's been going on, I think between 15 and 20 years, don't get me wrong. They just actually entered the new class.
Speaker 2:The new class is very small. My cohort was around 20. It was 25 of us, so, just so, just to say it's about 25 every year, ok, in every class. So they called us the COVID cohort because mine was 2021. So but beautiful people, man, like it's really mind blowing that. I think that's the first time I ever felt imposter syndrome, like why am I here? I'm the guy that writes plays, but there's people in my class that was times top 100 people in the world, like photojournalists and all over the world.
Speaker 1:All over the world, every kind of profession. Do you ever come together physically or is it we have, we have.
Speaker 2:Some of us, so if we travel to each other's cities or states some of us are overseas they might hit us up like hey, I'm in town, we all were together. I went to the TED conference in 22. So a lot of us were able to meet physically there. Some of us gave out talks. Some of us gave talks in other places Like I didn't mind, here in New York with BBCG Boston Consulting Group, that's what I do, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so some of us do, depending on where we're at in the world. Literally we do all convene. We have an app that we stay connected in LinkedIn groups and all those good things, so we absolutely all do talk.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's super dope, that is cool.
Speaker 2:No, it's amazing. It changed my life and it really kind of put things in perspective in the scope of what people are really doing in the world. You go to the TED conference. You hear them talk about stuff that won't even happen for the next 10 years, you know. So it was really a mind-blowing experience and I'm grateful to be a part of it.
Speaker 3:So as a TED talk person is it kind of almost like a fraternity kind of thing, whereas like you're in it forever.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, the resource is always there, the networking is always there. I can always reach out to you know some of our point people and say hey, I have this idea. I see such and such is doing this and that.
Speaker 1:Great network.
Speaker 2:Any way that we know we can connect or I'll have access to their emails and all that myself and it's one of those things, like you said, like a fraternity when you find out somebody's a TED fellow, it's automatically love.
Speaker 2:It's like okay how can I help you? You know, so it's beautiful and it's really people really really changing the world, like creating vaccinations and just all types of stuff. Like it's not just arts, because you know, ted started in a tech science world and it did it kind of like spread out to education and arts and things like that.
Speaker 2:so I'm a part of ted might be 10, 15 artists, you know, not saying that people, they're not creative everybody everybody's creative because the way they, they the outlook on what they do in their field, but actual, like artists I I would say as entertainment, there might be only 10, 15% of us out of all, out of everybody, they're really like, really heavy, like in the tech science world.
Speaker 1:We got, we got to get into this, jeffrey. Somehow we got to get in. I don't know how we might be too old by this point, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, it's great. No, I've, I've. I've met musical artists when I went to the. What's her name? I know, you probably know her Jeffrey Mariba, is that her name? Indie artist great, she's a singer, she's a soul singer. There's a lot of people I've come across in the music industry You'll be surprised at because even if you're not a TED fellow, you know you can attend the conference, which I would tell anybody Tickets are low pricey, rightfully so Tickets are a little pricey rightfully so.
Speaker 2:But once you're in there, the networking opportunities are out of this world. Out of this world.
Speaker 1:Unglossy on the road at the TED conference, Jeff.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, we got to ask about what can you share about the upcoming musical. Tell us a little bit about it. Where are you at? Where are you at in the process?
Speaker 2:It's beautiful. We're in development. We're about to have a 29 hour, which in theater that's like a week long workshop, where you kind of throw things at the walls, see what sticks, see what's working, see what you need to add, take away. So we're in a developmental phase. We have some verbal commitments. It should be on stage for full production by 2027. Like I told you, I've already been working on it since 2019.
Speaker 2:So yeah so there's a lot of projects I'm working on at the same time but really it's a beautiful story. It's loosely, loosely based off me and my grandfather's relationship. I got the call to come home when I was 20 years old, in undergrad, that my grandfather didn't have a lot of time left, so I had to come back home and when I came back home and attended the funeral there was a lot of family members that I hadn't seen since I was a kid. So just kind of stepping back in, kind of like that mantle passing right, like feel like you know, grandfather gone, okay, my father takes his spot, I take my father's spot, kind of like that, that aging kind of feeling.
Speaker 2:And the play is loosely, which I kind of made my own world and ethos to it in mythology, but it's based out of my projects in Queens Palmini Houses, so it's loosely based there and I created these archetypes of characters. My character's a young boy and baby girl and big mama and so forth and it's really just a beautiful piece of a gumbo of just Black culture. Right, you're going to hear some hip hop. You're going to hear some slam poetry. You're going to hear some R&B. You're going to hear some hip hop, you're going to hear some slam poetry, you're going to hear some R&B, you're going to hear some gospel, and you know, I just put everything into a pot that I love and I think it's a beautiful piece. Me and my team, we didn't necessarily get trained in musical theater, so our ear and eye for it, we're approaching it very differently.
Speaker 1:I think it sounds different from any other musical that you'll hear um, because we're just really just coming from a different angle and a different lens, and I think it's it's going to shake up some things when it hits. Wow, I'm excited already.
Speaker 2:I gotta wait till 2027.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know listen, it'll be there before we know it, though I'll let you come to some uh, developmental stops.
Speaker 2:Usually we have some invited reads, some some invited readings and things like that oh, that would be cool I'll be able to see it before it comes out for sure that would be, very cool.
Speaker 3:Wait, so one moment before we go to the rapper. How many Tony noms did you get for Thoughts of a Colored man?
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, we didn't get any. We didn't get any. I do feel like we you know we should have, but we, yeah, thank you, I appreciate that. But no, we end up not getting any nominations and I think honestly, you know, we had a better chance if we would have had our full run. Of course, that year was very tricky, with everybody needing to see it and you know things of that nature and the momentum was only growing coming into the new year.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, no, we didn't get any nominations.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but it was. You could say you got cut short because of COVID. It was almost like LeBron winning in the bubble. It's a ring, but it's like LeBron running in the bubble.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. But they won. It's still a ring, though it's still a ring, though it's still a ring.
Speaker 1:I got to ask you this because you have paved a way. You said you were going to do something and you've done it. What advice are you giving to artists that are trying to do what you've done? The generation behind you that's coming up. What advice do you give to them?
Speaker 2:First and foremost, believe in yourself. You know, everything that I've ever done in a profession and in my field, the things that have gone the furthest were the things that I created and the things that I follow my heart and my spirit with. So, first and foremost, believe in yourself. And there is a level of delusion you have to have that it's all possible, right. But first and foremost, I would say, definitely bet on yourself and also be willing to sacrifice what the next man isn't.
Speaker 1:That's good advice.
Speaker 2:Well, those are the two things I would say. It comes with a lot of sacrifices and a lot of times, unfortunately, in the arts the two biggest sacrifices are either going to be time and money, or both. So a lot of those years where I was independent, way before Broadway, I was happy just to break even, not turning over a profit, but knowing that you know, build, build, building, building those blocks, to get to a point where I could potentially even have an opportunity to even be on Broadway in the first place. Right, you know it's all about that. You know I knew once I got in the door my talent would keep me there.
Speaker 2:But I knew I had to get to the door first. Right, so a lot of times that comes with a lot of time of not going out, not partying, not vacationing, not eating out, not eating out. A series of maybe five good yeses to get me here, and fortunately Broadway was one of those right, but being used to hearing no, like leaning to the no's, you know.
Speaker 1:That's good advice, yeah, last thing I got to ask what gets you excited about the future of live theater.
Speaker 2:The possibilities, tech tech.
Speaker 2:I'm a multimedia guy, so I love seeing where theater's going, kind of like what TV and film's doing, like the LED screens and things like that. That's really cool what they're doing. And really I'm just here to champion new voices. Please let the stage reflect our true world right, and not just a sector of it. So I'm excited about a lot of the new voices and hopefully I was able to push the needle a little bit with my work in showing unconventional ways of storytelling right. There's many, many, many different ways to tell a story Like in my style. I fuse my love of slam poetry because that's what I need best, right.
Speaker 2:So, I'm excited about all the new, different styles of storytelling coming from these new voices that's coming up behind me.
Speaker 1:I like it. I think your dad would be quite proud.
Speaker 2:Thank you I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:And now I got to figure out this slam poetry thing. Jeffrey, I think I got some in me here. I'll tell you two, two of my favorites that that I've always studied legendary lemon anderson from brooklyn okay, black ice, he's from philly and two of my personal friends which are going to be in. Uh, the return of young boy. My musical is royale marsh and steven willis brilliant. Once you see that, you'll understand what slam poetry is, I'll understand it all right then.
Speaker 1:And there those four Cool. Well man, thank you, kenan. I mean in one hour I feel like you've educated me tremendously on just the workings of Broadway.
Speaker 2:I had no idea. I had no idea, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And I wish you the best of luck. I can't wait for now, the return of young boy.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. Trust me when I tell you I'm going to be on the list for any invited reading or anything I might do in New York where you can see it early.
Speaker 1:Yes, I want to be there. I want to be there.
Speaker 3:I'm with it. Let me get my fit together and get a cut.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Outstanding Everybody. That is Kenan Scott, and wait for his next big project coming. All right, folks, that's our show. Tune in to Unglossing the coding brand and culture on Apple Podcasts, spotify or YouTube and follow us on Instagram, at unglossypod, to join the conversation. Until next time, I'm Tom Frank, I'm Jeffrey Sledge.
Speaker 4:Smicky.
Speaker 1:Smicky, that was good.
