Stanley Jackson

On this week's episode I sit down with my old BADA mate and infectiously joyful human being, Stanley Jackson. We discuss everything from his storied adventures studying and working overseas to his gut instinct life decisions.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Okay, I think I got something. So nervous. Don't be nervous. If it's really bad, I'll cut it down. We'll get it in one go. Ready? One, two, three. Poster. Oh, botta. Oh, good, good. This segue there. Poster and botta. Okay. Three, two, one. Shakespeare. I don't know where poster and botta Shakespeare.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

For me, it was like, well, you have Shakespeare. The Shakespeare poster. That is true.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

That is Shakespeare. We didn't cheat. No. No. We got it in two. That was great. Welcome to Working Class Acts, everybody. Cue music. There it is. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Working Class Acts Podcast. I'm your host, John Metalodi. You haven't said it for me. I'm here today with an incredible performer and such a lovely human being. He was born in New Orleans and raised in Houston. Stanley earned his BFA in acting from Howard University and his MA in classical acting from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. His training and his career have taken him to stages around the world, including performances in London and tours in New Zealand. Ooh, and Australia. Ah, with the acclaimed pop-up Globe Shakespeare Company. Very cool. Uh in the US, Stanley has bought, has brought, he brought his talent. He did not buy it. He brought his talent to theaters nationwide, including the Alley Theater, Baltimore Center Stage, A Noise Within Theatre Company, the Wallace Annenberg Center stages, and Ensemble Theater Houston. Off Broadway, he appeared in the Refugee Plays at Roundabout Theatre Company. His recent work includes the world premiere of Fremont Ave at Arena Stage, the Huntington Theatre Company's production of Tony Stone, and Primary Trust at the Alley Theater. In addition to his work on stage, Stanley continues to expand his storytelling into film, television, and new media. Always seeking projects that resonate with honesty, humanity, and heart. It's Stanley Andrew Jackson, everybody. Stanley! Thanks for having me. It's good to see you, man. Yeah, bro. We were just saying it's been 13 years a long time since we've seen each other last. Although I've seen you on TV a few times in your in your commercials. I love I love seeing you. I always point you out to my friends. I'm like, I know him. Pay the bills. Okay. Dude, trust me, I just did a commercial shoot like a week and a half ago. So nice, congratulations. Thanks, but yeah. It was it was a lot of fun, actually. Yeah, very great fun. Yeah, yeah. Um, but for for those who don't know, which is maybe most of the people listening, uh, me and Stan Lee met at Bada, yeah, British American Dramatic Academy in Oxford, England. Um God, that feels so long ago, 13 years ago. Uh it was a Shakespeare program, and it was an incredible experience. I I still think of it so fondly. And it's so funny. Like I like you you were just mentioning like some of the people that we know in common. It is wild how many people have been through that program and like the amount of people who know whoever and the world just keeps getting smaller and smaller.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, you'd be really surprised.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

I actually uh this summer I worked as a mentor for Bada really with the Howard kids, and I actually went back to London. So they're like uh The Globe is doing uh Chadwick Boltzmann playing ages ago called Deep Azure. And so what they wanted to do was have some of the Howard kids that were at Bada this summer come and do a workshop at the Globe because the play is set in America, it's set at Howard, really. And so they like we're not gonna get to go to um to DC. So why not just utilize these kids while we have them here and do a workshop? They played the kids, um, and so they needed a mentor. Oh my god. My grad school Shakespeare teacher is now the dean of Bada. Really? Whoa! And so he we've always I've always been working with Bada over the years still. Yeah, yeah. And so yeah, I just was back. So I was at Maudlin this summer.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Oh my god, I miss it so much.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

And I was like, this is crazy to be back. Like it it was. Is it exactly the same? It is, is it?

SPEAKER_02 4:43

I mean, it's hard. It's a pretty old spot. There are not making a lot of renovations there, but man, yeah, it's like it's a gorgeous, gorgeous campus. It's exactly the same. Yeah. The food is still no bueno.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

And I just was there and I was like, you know, I I sometimes get overly emotional. I'm so sentimental. I'm like with the kids, and I'm like, oh my god, I guess you don't understand.

SPEAKER_02 5:05

Ten years ago, I was where you were. Yeah. So it was a great but that's like that's the beauty of it all, you know? Like seeing the community expand and grow, and that's that's so awesome. It changed my life. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

It really did. And I don't even know if you're one of the people that I like told that I was like, I'm going to grad school in the UK. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

But I Oh, you hadn't gone to grad school by the time we were doing that. No. No, okay, I was still in undergrad. I was still at Howard, and I had just gotten out of undergrad when we did that. Oh, like literally had just graduated.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Okay, I was a junior I was a I was just finishing my junior year. Gotcha, gotcha. Going into my senior year, and I was going to apply to like the NYU school. I mean the New York schools. Yeah, yeah. And then I went that summer and it changed my life, and I was like, I'm going to grad school in the UK. Yeah, yeah. So my senior year I applied, and then the next year I graduated and ended up moving to London.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Wow. Oh my God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

That is so wild. Yes. Well, let's let's take it back to the beginning. And then we can get to that because I have so many questions about that. Um, because that's an incredible school that you went to. Um where were you born? Where where'd you grow up? Where where did it all begin?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

I was thinking it was in New Orleans, Louisiana. Nice. Um, third while uptown maybe. Um and I was raised in Houston. I moved to Houston around the age of 10. Okay. Um, and so yeah, Houston. I mean New Orleans and then Houston.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Nice. What was the move? Was it for like your your family's new job or whatever? Something like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Yeah, yeah. My mom was ready for a change. Yeah, so like she didn't feel like we were getting the best education in New Orleans, and also she just wanted something different. Sure. And so yeah, we moved to Houston. Amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

And when did the proverbial bug bite you?

SPEAKER_01 6:46

You know, that's the interesting, you know. I'm a church boy, and so like people be like, when did you start believing? I like I've always gone to church, but there were moments when I was like, I'm gonna presume this thing for myself. And I think as a kid, my family is filled with storytellers, none professional, none professionally considering themselves to be artists. Yeah, but my grandmother, if you come to my house, she will tell you a story, and when she's telling the story, she's transported back. Yeah, if it's emotional, her eyes will water, she will physicalize, she'll get up, she'll stand. Like she performs. I love it. But all of us, my cousins, all of us have that same energy. Yeah, yeah. So I feel like in my family, we've always been performers, and at family gatherings, I would love a dance. Yeah. A dance moment, you know, like everyone. Um, so I feel like as a performer, I've always been a performer since I was a little kid. But my relationship to storytelling was starting to be developed in high school. Uh I started like uh I well in eighth grade, I saw a production of Much Ado About Nothing at my middle school. Yeah, seventh grade, actually. Um, and I was like, I had just gotten to this school and I knew that I wanted to be in the arts.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

But I didn't know what theater arts was, I didn't know what drama was. Yeah, yeah. And so I I saw the list of all the art programs, and I was like, the only one I know is choir. I'm a little church boy. All I know is all I know is choir. So I was in choir trying to learn how to sing. I can hold a note, but it's not my calling. Um and then I remember that seventh grade year, I saw some of my friends and classmates do this like very modernized, very country Houston production of Much Ado About Nothing. I was like, that's what I want to do. Yeah. So the next year I like got into the drama class because I knew what it was called. Now and then my drama teacher like put me immediately in the advanced advanced class after I did my first monologue. And so like when I went to high school, I was like, I'm gonna do this thing. This is and I always went to schools that were performing arts, yeah. Uh like performing arts and engineering schools. Oh, interesting. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Because my mom did it performing arts and engineering. They were like together. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Oh, that seems so engineering applied technology and the arts. Oh, interesting. That's the kind of high school I ended up in. That's amazing, though. I love I love that. Um, and so in high school, I like started the theater program in my sophomore year in Houston, uh, and in Texas as a whole, there are like this thing called UIL, Interscholastic League. They're like competitions for plays. Oh, okay, okay. Everything in Texas is a competition in a sport. And so uh basically you would every school would have to put on a 45-minute production.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

You would have seven minutes to set up the set, seven minutes to take down the set, and you would have to take a play. It could be a two-act play, but you would have to cut the script down, still make it make sense, and you have 45 minutes to do the show. Yeah. Um, strict rules. And so I was playing the lead in the show called Before It Hits Home, playing this like bisexual man who's like married and he has a partner and he has AIDS and then he dies at the end.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

15 like giving like the most tragic arc I've ever heard.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

As a 15-year-old. I know. And so at the first, the way these competitions go is like you, if you win the first round, you're competing against other schools to the next round. So um, at the first round, I remember uh doing this play, and at the end of the play, my character dies from AIDS in the hospital. And I remember when the play was over, the curtain was coming down, and I just remember weeping because I could hear the applause. And I think it was the first time I realized, oh my god, they're responding because I they believed me taking them on this journey. Yeah. Um, and I remember crying, and then I had to realize, oh my god, you got seven minutes to help take down this set. Which I remember telling my drama streaming. The drama strike. I remember telling my drama teacher, Rashonda Jones, who is now a Tony Award-winning theater teacher. Oh my god, that's amazing. Um, I remember telling her, I I'm like taken on the set. I'm like, I gotta do this for the rest of my life. So that was the that was the moment that I was like, I'm gonna be an actor. Yeah. I'm really pursue this thing.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

So that's so wow, that is such a beautiful story. Yeah. Oh my gosh. And this was all in high school. Well, that's that's amazing. It is it is so interesting to me, like hearing other people's uh experiences of like doing high school productions and stuff like that, because like my it's it's like one extreme or the other, where it's like you're doing really intense work like this, or you're doing like Greece Junior or whatever. Right, right, right, right. It's like there's no middle ground, it feels like both. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

To be honest. So I've I've done we would do a musical every year and we would do with the competition, and even our musicals were competition. There's a name called Tuts, Tommy Toon Awards. So now that one is national. Ummy Toon. Yeah, um, but so what like freshman year we did uh Cinderella. No, sophomore year we did Cinderella, freshman year we did Annie, Sweet Charity. So we would do the same, and then when it was time for the show, there was always the musical and the straight play. The straight play was always real. We're going hard. The year after this one, the one that I just I played a lawyer of a guy who was on death row.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Oh my god. At least you got weren't the guy on death less. That would have been intense.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

We're all kids.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

It was called A Lesson Before Dying.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

It was actually well-known. This is a it's a well-known movie and a well-known play, but I'm like, we're doing this, like, and then we're doing like Dream Girl. Yeah. Sweet charity.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

So like we're doing Angels in America next. Right. Yes. That's incredible. Yeah. Um, so you got that, but that's that incredible experience. You that's like that moment where you realize you gotta do it. Yeah. And then so you you go to Howard. Did you go there for for acting? Did you get yeah?

SPEAKER_01 12:39

I went to Howard for acting. Um, my junior year of high school, I was like already thinking about my senior year. I was like really focused on where I was going to go to school. And I remember looking up schools, and there was a part of me that was like, I wanted to go to HBCU. And so I remember Googling HBCUs for drama. And I have a lot of moments in my life where I felt like were very, and this is a part of my like faith walk, but like that I feel like are very divine, that I can't explain, and that like kind of were guideposts for my next moves. So I remember being on my uh on on the computer looking up HBCUs for theater arts, and I remember being on Howard's page, and then I remember my drama teacher calling me, and she was like, Hey, I know you're looking for schools. Um, you should consider Howard. I'm at the National Black Theater Festival, and these Howard humans are winning all of these awards. And I happened to be on the Howard page, and I was like, Miss Jones, I'm on the Howard's page. I I think I'm just gonna apply to Howard, and that's I only applied to Howard. Oh whoa. Yeah, I I I didn't choose to apply to any other school because I felt it was the right place. Yeah. I didn't tell my mama that not.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

You're like, yeah, I applied to like 15.

SPEAKER_01 13:49

I don't know. I I only auditioned and I only applied to Howard. Wow. Um, and then I I I I got it, and I actually don't know what I would have done if I didn't get it.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

You would have had to wait a year. Um but that's amazing. How was your time at that incredibly historic school?

SPEAKER_01 14:08

Yeah, Howard defined who I am as an artist, I believe. I think it really gave me an identity um for knowing how to create as a black artist in a black body. Yeah. Um, and it helped me to know more about who I was. I I I don't I I I came up from my upbringing where there was an I felt very ignorant.

SPEAKER_03 14:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

So I'm in the from being from the South, there was a lot of things I just didn't know, even just about like black history, about who I am. And so I I always credit Howard for like shaping me to be the artist that I am and helping me to like just know how to live and be and find freedom in my own body and to always show up um from my own body, my own heart, my own mind. Um, and then in that I can mold and shape shift into anything else.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Yeah. Oh, that's beautiful, dude. Yeah. And so you go to Howard. Do you return? Wait, where did you go after Howard? Because you you just told me recently, or just today, that you that you're new to New York City. For some reason, I thought you lived here for years. Oh, no. Um I I don't know why.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

But you did you go to the West Coast after that or or No, so I mean, so junior year at Howard, I went to Bada. That summer I went to Bada. Oh, of course, yes. Um, and then at Bada, I had a similar experience to called you, you were on the website.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

I mean, it was a little different.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

I remember working on like text for class. Yeah. I think I'm my my senior partner was Catherine. Um Catherine.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

Yeah. God, I haven't seen some of them in so long. It's wild.

SPEAKER_00 15:38

I just see them on social media.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

I know. She she she's doing great, it seems like she's got a whole production company now.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Yeah, it's great. Um, and so I remember I remember working on some text, and I remember feeling this like impulse. And I think this is all connected to the summer and how it was changing me. Yeah. But I remember feeling this deep impulse of like, I need to go to school in the UK.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

And so I remember I made these choices and I called I I believe that they're spiritual, but also somebody could be like, brother, you was just crazy.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Um he's only applied to one place? Yes, he has to go here.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Um, but I I remember looking at our pamphlet, and my voice teacher that summer, I I think his name was Robert something, I don't remember. But he went to Central. Oh, wow. Oh so I knew little, but I remember walking around a lot. You know, I told um at the time I told the Dean, Ian Woolrich, I told Dean uh Ian that like, Ian, I'm gonna apply to school. I'm gonna apply to school and um to in the UK. And yeah, I my senior year at Howard, I applied to Central, and that's the only school I applied for for grad school, and I got it.

SPEAKER_02 16:39

Honestly, you you have some sort of radar for like it, you know what's gonna happen. You're seeing the future.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Uh and I don't know if I want to say seeing the future, but I because I don't want to, but that's a lot of pressure.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

Um because if that I would hope I see more money in my life.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

I was just gonna say, I'm like, I'm gonna ask you for some investment advice.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

Listen, I don't need that for my damn self. But um, yeah, and I've even my apartment in London for school, Ian was my guantor. Really? Yeah, like that. Wow, that was very sweet. Oh, that's lovely. Um, but yeah, so I went to school in London and I was in London for a year and a half. Okay. Um the program was a one-year master's program. Oh, interesting. Studying classical theater specifically. Right. Um, really intense, really rigorous, four modules, a lot happening in a short amount of time. Um, and then I was like unsure of what was next because I always felt spirit-led. And I was like, what am I doing? I was like broke, I was homeless, I was living on a classmate's couch. Um, and I was like, what am I gonna do next? And uh my Shakespeare teacher at the time, he uh had partnered with a friend who was starting this theater company in New Zealand called the Pop-Up Shakespeare Company. Wow, and it was called the Pop-Up Globe Shakespeare Company, and the whole idea was that he was reading a Shakespeare book to his daughter, uh, and it was a pop-up book, and the globe popped out, and she was like, Daddy, I want to go there. And he had this idea. He was like, Oh, well, we can't just go to London right now because we're in New Zealand. But what if I have this idea of building a building a replica of the globe and taking it to places that people won't be able to access the globe? Whoa. And so he like mortgaged his house, he like put his house up for mortgage and took everything he had, and he followed this idea. My Shakespeare teacher from Central happened to be a friend of his, so he was like, Hey, will you direct one of these shows? Let's do two shows and rep. Yeah. So my Shakespeare teacher was directed, Romeo and Juliet, and he got me and one of my classmates to audition. And so I was like, I auditioned. I had also been up for something else while I was in London, like the Tempest in Ireland, and I was really grappling as living on this friend's couch, yeah. I was really grappling with like where I was gonna go. Yeah, you know, because I'm just like this little black boy in this foreign space, just following where my spirit is. Yeah, yeah. And so I like wrestled what I consider I wrestled with God one night emotionally, trying to figure out what, and then the next morning I woke up with peace about moving to New Zealand on a one-way ticket. You just knew it, yeah. And so I moved to New Zealand on a one-way ticket. Whoa. Um, and then a couple weeks after that, that's when I booked the Super Bowl. I booked a Super Bowl commercial.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

I saw that one and I went, good for Stanley.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

I'm like, that's a paycheck, I'm sure. Honestly, yeah, I wish I knew how to steward money better. If I really could see in the future, I would have saved because I would have seen the moments I was gonna be broke. So I had to say, I can't see in the future. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

But um, yeah, and so I I moved to New Zealand on a one-way ticket, and I just was like, I'm just I I think the real surrender was like, I'm just gonna take take the next step that I'm feeling had to make. And that's kind of where my how my it's still, I'm still in that space. Now I have a wife, so it's a little different.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

It's like, oh, she's like, brother, you just taking steps with this, you know. And I'm like, I know. You just gotta trust the journey.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

You gotta trust that the next step will be there, correct?

SPEAKER_00 19:55

As I'm like, oh Lord, please let the next step be there, guys. Please let the next it's just real. That's the real thing.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

I mean, that's that's that's the artist's way, it feels like, you know.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

I worked with the company the first season. We did Romeo and Juliet and 12th night in rep. Oh, nice. Um, and uh the the the gig was like six months, and I was like, after it finished, I had this like it was my first ever like professional gig post-school. Yeah. Um, other than like undergrad professional gig that I did like a summer thing in DC. Um and so I was like, okay, uh, what do I do? I'm just in New Zealand, I have a visa for two years, so I got a job at a cafe and learned how to make coffee, and then I knew the theater was gonna, it was fairly, it was really successful. Yeah. And so it the Southern Hemisphere had never had anything like it. Oh, that's so cool. And so it kind of blew up quickly. And so the second season with the company, I knew I was bought in with the company, they love me, I love it. Yeah, of course. Um, and so the second season, it was bought by Live Nation. Really? Yeah, and so like now there was more money. Jesus. Yeah, there was more money. So then the second season we were gonna do a season in New Zealand, and then it was gonna have a season in Melbourne, Australia.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

And so um, yeah, second year they like expanded it instead of just doing two productions, there was four productions and there was two companies. So there were two companies doing two shows in rep. Um, and so I was in Henry the Fifth and uh As You Like It and As You Like It, I played Seal It and As You Like It Because there was an all-male company and then there was uh like a male and female company. Gotcha, gotcha. This is pre-summer things. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

They were doing they were doing like a traditional sort of style of yeah, sure, sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Where yeah, and so um yeah, I I I did the second season and then I was like really aching to go home. Yeah. And I was just like, I I now surrendered to the journey, but uh God, like I I wanna be working in America, and this is not helping my American career. Like no one knows what Work I'm doing here.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah, I'm getting even though it's amazing work you're getting to do. But it's I I totally get that.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Yeah. And so um I did the season in New Zealand and then I did the bit the stint in um Melbourne, Australia, and then February 2018 I moved back to America. So I had been gone from America from September 2014 to February 2018. So I had just moved back to America. You were out for four years. Wow. I've come back, I had come back maybe two or three times. Holidays, my sister graduated from high school. But yeah, I'd been I'd been away for a while. And so yeah, I moved back February 2018 and then I lived in Houston with my mom with the goal of like, I'm gonna be here three months and I'm moving to LA or New York. I was there for a year and a half, sure. Um, and really fell in love and discovered uh the Houston theater scene. Oh, great. Um, because I came back like, I'm not trying to work in the Houston theater scene, I've been working all over the world, and then was immediately humbled and like broke, and my mom was just like, I'm just sitting on the bed, my mom's not pressuring me to do anything, and she knows I'm depressed because I've like finished this sort of world tour and so yeah, she was just like, Why don't you just like try to work here? Yeah, I I went to an audition and started to build community, book some gigs, worked at the theaters in Houston, and then I was like, after a year and a half, I was like ready to move forward and move on. And um then I moved to LA September 2019. Um and I stayed in LA.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

We all know it's coming. We live in the future now.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Yeah, you know, because the heart and the hope had been like I've been doing so much theater, I would love to do more TV and film. Of course. And so I moved to LA and I have an agent this whole time. Like, I had an agent in London, and then I left my London agent once I moved to New Zealand. In New Zealand, I got a I was working with people who had like great New Zealand agents, so then I got a New Zealand agent. Oh wow. Um, and then my New Zealand agent, once I moved back to America, got me an LA agent. Wow. Grateful favor, I'm so grateful at the time. Yeah, of course. Um, and so even while I was in Houston, I still had an agent in LA, and I remember we had been talking, I had been auditioning for all the things, all TV shows, still just in Houston. And I remember uh August of that year, I was like fidgeting ready, like, what is the am I gonna and then I remember the LA agent calling me and being like, hey, where are you gonna be in the fall and the spring, the fall of this year and the spring of next year?

SPEAKER_02 24:24

And I was like, I don't know, but since you're calling me, I think I think you might be telling me where I'm gonna be in the fall.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

What was it for? It wasn't for he was just curious because he knew stuff was happening in the city. Yeah. Because after that call, in a month I moved to LA. I didn't have a car, I bought a car.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

I thought you were gonna say you walked. I walked the whole way there.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

This is a hell of a journey. But yeah, in a month, I bought a car, packed all my stuff, wow, and I moved to LA in September 2019 with like a dollar and a dream. And so I'm there. I'm living on my best friend's couch for uh from high school from undergrad. Nice. Um, I was living on her couch, and yeah, I was there, and then you know, I'd February 2020. I had just moved there. I still did a couple gigs over Christmas in Houston, but I was like, I gotta stop working in Houston because if I keep coming back, they'll they'll think that I'm just always gonna jump in. You're gonna be there. Yeah, sure, sure. So I was like, I'm gonna do this last gig and that's it. Um, and I'd come back to LA and then I had some really dope auditions. And they were, I remember auditioning for this pilot for NBC, and I was like, oh my god, I really like this script. You know, sometimes you're doing it because you want the opportunity. You want the cards. Of course, of course. And then there are times. And then sometimes you get a script and you're just like, I actually like this. I don't feel right for this. And so I was in LA and I was like trying to get this LA agent. I was like, hey, can you get me in the room? And they were like, oh no, we don't think we can. Oh, now the audition, I was still with my New Zealand agent. So I had the New Zealand and LA agent at the same time. Oh, great. The audition actually came from my New Zealand agent. Oh, interesting. Yeah, when you learn that they're cast all this stuff all worldwide. It don't really matter. Whoever gets going first. They were like, just get them in there. So I was like, I'm just gonna really try to send in a really good tape. So sent my tape in to my New Zealand agent. Uh-huh. New Zealand agent sent it to Australian cast and director. Australian cast director sent it to NBC, and then I had a producer session. Fantastic. And then I did the producer session, and then like I made it to screen test. And I'm like, it's happening. Spoil this I didn't get the job. I didn't get the job. But I was like, this is a great opportunity. Now my LA agent values me in some sort of way. You know, always looking for words from these people.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Um but like showing that, like, hey, had you like pushed me for this, like you saw what I just did. Correct. I got all the way there. Correct. Almost all the way there. Just close. What was it for? Do you if you don't mind it's okay if you don't want to.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

Wait, what was that? The thing is, I don't even know if I remember the name of the show. At the time, it didn't.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Did they have a name? They didn't have a name in the show.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

But it's it's it's come out like a couple years after the pandemic. I just Grand Crew. Grand Crew, okay. It followed like four black guys in their relationship to wine and them doing life together. Oh, fuck. It was a sit cool. Interesting. Loved it, enjoyed it. The all them brothers were older brothers who were playing younger, and I do not look their age. Yeah, sure. Regardless, I was grateful for the opportunity. And it was right into my my wheelhouse, I felt. Yeah. Um, and so I was like, oh, this is gonna give me more auditions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's once I like got the note, the next week it did. Oh, nice. And then two weeks later the pandemic happened.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

And so, you know, and then we all ran inside.

SPEAKER_01 27:40

It just like the momentum started, and then it was just like uh here goes the collective world traumatizing and and uh depression.

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Yeah, honestly, and then just a total reshape of how auditioning happens now in this industry. Yeah. I mean, everything you see the hooks on my wall over here for myself tape.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Yes, I have listen, we have a two-bedroom in my our office, is an office, a workout room, and an audition. Love it. I love it. It's all the things. Um, but yeah, that I was so happy because I was deciding between New York and LA. So when an agent called me, I chose LA. Yeah. As I have always done in that story. I'm like, what's the thing? And then I something propels me to make a decision. But I'm so happy that I did the pandemic in LA. Yeah. I needed to do the pandemic in LA. I needed space, I needed green grass, I needed the sun. I how have you moved. I wish I had been there.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

I would love to interview you about how you made it through. Uh I was going through grad school at the time too, and it was it was a really wild experience. Maybe I should just like dedicate an episode to just like that whole experience. It's because it was I genuinely I wouldn't trade it for anything though. It because the thing I constantly say about my time during there was when we first got thrust into it, because it like happened, it started like at the start of our spring break. So we had a week where it was like, you gotta be inside, this'll be over in a week anyway, so it'll be fine. And so we were all just like, all right, well, we were on vacation anyway. I wasn't gonna go fucking anywhere because like I'm like, I just wanted to lay at home. And then obviously it lasted for a few years. What year were you? What was that? What year were you at NYU? My first year. So it was my second semester, my first year, and when we first got thrust into indoors, it was terrible. Like there was just no, and like nobody could prepare for this. Nobody knew like that we were gonna have to like do everything at home over Zoom, this thing we just learned about. Right. Um, so the fur that the end of that year was very difficult. Um, there were were some instances that were amazing, like uh Brandon Dearden uh was uh one of our our teachers. One I think he just started at NYU, if I remember correctly. Him and Crystal were like adjunct professors, and they did this amazing uh um course on August Wilson that was like engaging and informative. I like I was learning more about Wilson than I had ever had before. Um, and they made it engaging through Zoom. And like to this day, I'm just like, I'm so grateful for that experience because like they somehow cracked some sort of code on how to like teach through this and also perform. Um and and that's to you know, to the other teachers there. They if any of you are watching, um, you also did a wonderful job as well. It was really freaking difficult what you had to go through, uh what we all had to go through to like get learning done. Um, but then by the second year we were hybrid, it was like some in-person, some not, and then third year we were back pretty much fully in person, uh, but there were still some protocols in place. Uh, but we got to do our final year production, which was great, and got to do like I got to be in Gloria, which is Brendan Jacob Jenkins, and it's like it I think is a modern masterpiece. It's so fucking good. Um, so I was very grateful for that. And uh yeah, oh, and all this to say too, like I the reason I wouldn't trade it for anything is because a couple of things. I've said this before, but I'm gonna keep repeating it. Is when you're working in the theater, your job is almost always working with restrictions. Like whether it's budgetary or like the space or what have you, you're you learn to work with the restrictions. Absolutely. We had to wear masks, we had to be six feet apart. That was the restriction. It was really fucking hard to work with, but like we made it work and figure it out. You know, it it really unlocked this notion of this is really funny. One of my my old roommates, Dylan, used to say, Who knew we were we were all ugly from the eyes down? You know that was the thing that makes us ugly. Ugly. But uh, all that to say, like, there's so much information on the face. Of course, yeah. Um, the eyes give a lot, but the mouth and the rest of the face do too. Yeah. And so it was like when we finally were able to take off the masks, it was like an explosion of information. And being able to work that way was like there was something really like I'd never take it for granted. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

You value all of a person more. Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

Absolutely, like all the little things going on in the face, behaviors. You just I feel like we like picked up on that more as a result. And the other was because we were on Zoom so much, I got used to being in front of a camera. Of course. And it was like that was something that was like always in my head because film and television is something that I've also wanted to be getting more into. Yeah. Um, but uh for whatever reason, haven't been able to like really dive into that market. I'm more of a theater performer. Yeah. Um but yeah, I'm I'm so grateful for that and wouldn't change it for anything. Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

I get it. I I always am so curious. I had a friend who was in Juilliard at the time as well. Who? Who was Nedra Snipes? Oh, okay, I don't know. Um, but um, and I just remember being alongside of her in the midst of the journey, and I was just like, I'm just always so curious. But also, I think it's really beautiful what you like discovered in the midst of that, and like how Brandon and Crystal were able to like find ways to like unlock things in y'all, and then also, you know, just valuing who we are, and then the ingenuity of a creative, like we have we we're we we make something out of nothing. That is what we do. Yeah, that is our job. That is the job, and that's what I loved about Howard is like it did not have all the things, all the facilities, but we learn to create, yeah, and to make honest humanity, pictures of humanity that would reach people in any way with whatever we had. So I I I love that. I love I love that too. Oh my god. Yeah, so I was I was I was in the um the the throws of LA in the midst of that. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

And you but that must have been nice to be like like in a like sunshine state. It was actually is it the sunshine state? What state is that? I don't know. Oh, I think that's Florida. Is that Florida? Oh maybe I don't know. Anyway, it was warm over there. It was so you had some nice weather going on.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

The sun, like, it was really great. Honestly, I loved it. Uh I it was the best intro into Los Angeles. Yeah. Really? That's so.

SPEAKER_00 34:14

I mean, not as an artist, not as an actor, not as a person who has a desire, not not as a person who desires to do TV and film. Because there was no TV and film. Nothing was happening.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

Um my gosh. But it was a great opportunity for me to like really rediscover. Like, wait, but who are you? Yeah. You are more than what you do. Yeah. And you know, that's always really hard to remember and think about. I still have to remind myself of that. Yeah. Like, I am more than what my gifting. You know. Like I me being present is enough. Yes, yes. You know, and so I mean, I utilize that time to like, I got really invested in a church in LA. Fantastic. Um, because that's always a place where I first built community um and found great friends. And I met my wife in 2020. In LA? Ah. It's all for a reason. Yeah. In 2020. In twenty October 2020 is when I met my current wife. Um, we had a we we I'd met a we had a mutual friend that I had just met months prior. Um, through a friend from Houston who was like, Hey, I have a friend who needs friends in in LA. And I was like, Okay, cool. I got friends. I already have friends. It took me no time to make friends in LA.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

But I was like, okay, I got friends, but that's okay. Let me, I'll I'll go have a friend. Like, I guess I'll go meet my future wife. Well, no, it wasn't her. Oh, it wasn't her. It was our mutual friend.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

It was a mutual friend that I was that that's now. Well, that was our mutual friend. Anyway, but yeah, I had coffee with her and I was like, okay, cool, cool, cool. And so she invited me to a dinner on the beach um because we had all been in love with it. Yeah. And she was like, I we've all been inside. I'm inviting, you know, friends who like love God and our creatives to this like beach dinner. And so, like, I was shop rocked up to the beach dinner, and then there was this girl there, and I was like, What is going on with my heart? I have been single and fine for a long time. What is happening? And so, I mean, the story goes, and if you're not gonna like this, baby, but I know the thing is, you're gonna watch this. But you know, I rocked up to the beach, and it was a very multicultural beach, you know, thing.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

And so I was like, Well, I'm not just gonna try this. It felt like there was two black people sitting together, and I was like, What I'm not gonna do is just go sit next to the black people.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

Um, and so I was like, There was these two girls, um, and I was like, I'm gonna sit over here. And then she was like, There's some space over here. And I was like, immediately I was like, dang, girl, if you want it, I'll come over there and sit next to you. I didn't say this, but this is what goes on in my brain. Sure, sure. Um, but that's like the order, like, so I, you know, I always attest, like, I don't, you know, I don't know, I don't see the future because I could have never seen that when I chose to move to LA, but I've always found that following my instincts and where my spirit is being led has led me to like really great things. And my wife is like my biggest thing that I take from my season in LA. That's lovely, dude. You know, finding my person. Um, but yeah, and the rest of LA was just like, you know, really being with her. And I um I became a resident artist at a theater company. Amazing, a classical theater company called A Noise Within Theater Company. Fantastic. Um, I'm kind of now like as a uh uh a guest artist with them now, but I'd been a resident artist for a while and I did like four productions with them, worked at a church and yeah, just like enjoyed the LA world for four years. Yeah. Um, and then I just moved here September 2023. Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

What and what was the what was the impetus to move here now?

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Uh so my wife and I had been together for a while at the time, and so she was getting her PhD in communications from University of North Carolina, and the only reason she happened to be in LA was because it was her first year of her program and it was on Zoom. Oh she would have been in North Carolina if the pandemic didn't happen.

SPEAKER_02 38:11

Whoa.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Fate. Fate? Lisa. I ain't trying to evangelize, but I'm just saying. Um but yeah, so the second year, yeah, the second year of her program, she did, she did have to go to North Carolina. So we did long distance for two years. Ooh, that can be that can be hard. It was really tough. Yeah, it was really tough, but we made a commitment of like we it it was tough, but it also like really increased our form of communication. Yeah. We were forced to like communicate everything, yeah, schedules, money, all the things because we had we had we chose to commit to each other. Um, and then uh one of us would travel once a month to see the other one. And once I became a resident artist at a theater company, she was doing more of the traveling. Um but then she had gotten an opportunity to apply for a fellowship in New York um at the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. Um, and so when the fellowship opportunity arose, I was like, we're moving to New York. And so she hadn't even applied. She just told me, she just told me it existed.

SPEAKER_02 39:16

And and a little bit of trust me, only apply to this one and you'll get it. Trust me. No.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

Her we actually have this conversation still to this day because her and I have different relationships with this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

She's like, does she apply to a lot of things? Yeah. So she's trust me.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

I'm applying for a lot of things, and you know, there were times when she would get the green light, and there were a lot of times I didn't as well know. Yeah, yeah. Um, but the context was that a month prior, I had been sick of working at the church. Just men working in ministry was really challenging on me. And I just felt very stagnant. I was just like, I just want to be creative. And I was at the theater company, but I I move around a lot as my story lets you know. And so like I get a little bit like, okay, what's happening? You know, and like I wasn't finding favor in TV and film. My momentum had left, and I felt like I was like a sitting duck on that um the agent's books at the time. Yeah. Um, and so a month prior, I had done like a retreat with the folks at the church, and uh they were asking what's our one-year plan, five-year plan, one year, two-year, and five-year plans. And so I was like, Well, in a year, I want to get engaged, I want to get married, and I always say I want to be a serious regular on TV show. That hasn't changed, and I'm still believing, you know. So if you're watching, you know, we're both looking at the camera.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Hey, hey, hey, all the cameras. All the cameras.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Do you see the cameras? And so, and I also said, I don't see myself working at this church. So that was a month before she told me about the so when the fellowship. So when she told me about the fellowship, I was like, and I had I see it. Well, I had to take that out of my the honesty of my heart. Yeah, just exhausted at that rate. Yeah, and so when she said that, I was like, this is what's gonna happen next. And I had shared then I shared what I'd said at the retreat, and so yeah, she ended up getting the fellowship. Yeah. Um, and I proposed in March of 2023. We got married July 2023. We moved to New York, September 2023. Oh, hey, that was pretty fast. Wait, 2020, March, January, March, April, May, June, so March, three months to like fast. We had been together since October 2020. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

But um But I mean, like from engagement to wedding, like that must have been a lot to put together, or or maybe not. I don't know. We're both not married.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

We both we consider ourselves to be type B C D with high level A qualities. We don't like being tape able to if we need to. And so like we planned our own wedding.

SPEAKER_02 41:49

I love it. This is yes, no, and sometimes why. This is where I ask a bunch of yes and no questions to Stanley here. And then every so often, when my interest is peaked, I'll ask why. And he'll answer. So let's get to it. Oh, and these questions are sourced from teambuilding.com. Nice! Thank you, teambuilding.com. If you still exist.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Without you, we wouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 42:15

Wouldn't be a team. This team wouldn't get built. All right, Sir Stanley. You ready? Mm-hmm. Here we go. Do you vote? Yes. Have you ever been grounded? Yes. Do you drive? Yes. Do you live alone? No. Are you married? Yes. Do you have kids?

SPEAKER_00 42:34

Well, sometimes. Oh, why? No. My wife is gonna be so nervous.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Do you have pets? No. Why? Uh because I live in New York.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

You know, like my wife wants a dog. She wants a dog, she's gonna want to, her family has a dog. I've had a dog. I'm not anti-pet.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

The pet people. Can you squash these rumors that you're anti-pet right now?

SPEAKER_01 42:59

I just want everybody to know I have nothing against pets. Pets actually love me. I love them from a distance. It's like kids at the moment, I do have baby fever, but kids at the moment, I love them. I'm a great uncle. Right now, I I could take care of your kids, I can watch them for one night. But then I want to give them back to you. So same with the pets. And so, like, I don't know. We will when we move, we're gonna move back to LA one day. Uh-huh. But when we move, we when we have more space. I can't. In my New York apartment, I can't. Trust me. I get it.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

I I I used to be a dog walker for many years, and uh, it's it's tough. Like, like the the some dog like a smaller dog, I get it, I get it. Like they're less, there's a less energy that needs to get out. But man, I've walked a lot of pit bulls in this city, yeah, and I don't I don't know, and I love pit bulls, they are the sweetest dogs in the world. But man, they've got a lot of strength and energy, and they just need some wide open spaces, you know.

SPEAKER_01 43:52

I just don't know how people do it. No, they just walk on the ground, it's dirty. And I see the people who got the cute, and I don't have the budget for. That's a child. I don't have the budget for the cute shoes.

SPEAKER_02 44:03

I know.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

That live shoes. You know the people that have the little moodies. Yeah, I'm like, cool, so that they can take them off and they get in the house. I don't have the desire.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

Fair enough, fair enough. Do you work full time? No. Do you like your job? Yes. Do you have a second job? Yes. Are you afraid of the dark? I almost asked why, but then I was like, eh, fuck it. I think I've asked that before. No. Are you not afraid of the dark? No. Why?

SPEAKER_00 44:34

Uh. Well, now you got me really thinking about the dark.

SPEAKER_02 44:39

I'm gonna make you scare the dark.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

Well, well, no.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

I'm like, well, hold on now. If I walked in here and you didn't have no lights on.

SPEAKER_02 44:48

If the door opened and it was pitch black in here and you didn't see me, we wouldn't do be doing this interview.

SPEAKER_01 44:55

I feel like if I was in a horror movie, it would have to be like scary movies. Yeah. Like sort of like parodying in the movie. I'm unserious.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Yeah. Because if I walked in here and then the door opened, I'd be like, John. You in there? John, why are you in there? I'm country. I'm a little conjured in the spirits. And I'd be like, John, what? John, what is you got going on here? And I'm a I'm gonna talk to you until you showed up. I'd be like, all right now, John, I'm not gonna keep walking in. I'm covered in the city. I don't know if I'm afraid.

SPEAKER_01 45:23

But I my wife is afraid, but I'll be trying to scare her. She's afraid of the dark.

SPEAKER_02 45:28

Love that. Do you like spiders? No. Do you know how to swim?

unknown 45:34

Kinda.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

Why? Well, you know. Or what's going on there? Maybe more than why.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

Well, you know, well, you know, they said, not even to go stereotypical, but like I don't have no one ever was like, hey, let's teach you how to swim. Sure, sure. My mama was like, boy, you don't know how to swim.

SPEAKER_00 45:51

And it's just like, well, damn, sis, did you ever try to teach me? You don't know until I'm talking.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

But I do think I can swim. Like I've I've been in, I've been in, you know, larger pools of water. I would think in New Zealand. In New Zealand, like my New Zealand best friends. Yeah, like, and I've been out, you know, and then I've been like, oh, let me just get back to the rocks. Ah, good old dry land. You know, like I don't have a I don't have a huge amount of confidence, but I always say, like, I could survive.

SPEAKER_02 46:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:21

But that's in theory.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

I'd love that's on your resume. You're like someone who's a dancer. Do you move? Uh are you a swimmer? I survive. Fantastic. That was round one. How you feeling?

SPEAKER_01 46:32

Yeah, I feel good. I got enjoyed. I'm good.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

I'm good. I'm glad. Round two. Oh, something I didn't mention. They get the answer or the questions can get progressively harder as they go along. You'll understand what I mean. Okay. I almost started with a really silly one. Wait, actually, I want to know. Are you a twin or a triplet? No. Okay. Those rumors are squashed too. It'd be given hell if there was multiple of me.

SPEAKER_01 46:56

I'm already a lot.

SPEAKER_02 46:59

Can you recite pi to more than 10 digits? 3.14.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

That's all I got. That's three. Six? That's pretty good. 3.146? Is it nine? Oh, you beats me. I don't know. Oh, so now I can make it up. You should put like some.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

I should have it listed, even though this page would be infinite.

SPEAKER_01 47:19

3.146975432. Is that real?

SPEAKER_02 47:24

I don't know. That was a guess. You could have. This is an actor right now. Here we go. Can you make a dolphin noise? I don't know. I needed to hear it. That's not, I know. I don't know. Do you believe in ghosts?

SPEAKER_01 47:38

The Holy Ghost! Oh, Jesus!

SPEAKER_02 47:44

I love it. Have you ever been in a band? No. Have you ever taken a road trip? Yes. Have you ever gotten a speeding ticket? Yes. Why? Do you have like a specific thing that happened? Well, I was guilty.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

Yeah, uh, I have one specific one that oh, I just told my mom about this.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

Okay, so this one's safe to tell.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

It is. Because yeah, I've got stories. Um, I had just moved back to Houston. My mom was letting me use her car, and I remember I was just trying to hustle, and I was uh I was I took like an extra gig in Austin, Texas. And so I I took my mom's car, which wasn't in the best shape, very old, from Houston uh to Austin, Texas. The car broke down right before I like had arrived at the place. Uh and so I like pushed it to park in someone's driveway, and I went in to do the extra gig. And then on the I realized that night, like, oh, I can't get back to Houston. So I ended up telling my mom, and she was like, just take a mega bus back with us, me her and her boyfriend, and we'll go back tomorrow and put a new transmission in there. Sure. Um, and so they came the next day. We went back to Austin, they got the transmission, and then we were in separate cars. And so driving back, I was speeding out of them, and my mom was just like, What are you doing? Why are you driving so fast? And I was like, Mom, I'm fine. I had gotten at least like 10 to 15, I mean, maybe 10 to 20 minutes ahead of them, and a cop came out of nowhere, drove behind me, pulled me over. Oh no, and I was just like, I don't want mom to see. I don't want my mom to see. So I'm just like, anything he needed, I just gave him everything very fast, very quick. Uh just got the ticket. He was like, You're going 90 in the 75, 90, probably 92 in the 75. Oh my god. And I um I was I got the ticket, driving back out, and my mom gets behind me really soon. And then all of a sudden she's calling me. She's like, Why are you swerving? She didn't see me get the ticket. She thought I was swerving, but I was coming from off of the sides, the path. And so she was like, All right, well, just pull over to the the gas station. Um, we need to get some gas. And I was like, okay. Then she was like, give me the keys. I'm driving. You're swerving, and I just want to make sure you're okay. Um, I just want to make sure you're okay, and I don't have and I was just like, so I had recently just started going to therapy, and I was learning how to like navigate. Being I had been away for eight years. Sure. Live at home with my mother again. And so my little inner child came out, and I like, when she took the keys, I like got in the back seat and I like put my knees on it on heart. And then rump. Yes, and then like I'm processing as my therapist has taught me about like, why am I feeling like this? Sure. And then I have this like deep, beautiful revelation. I'm like, oh, I am a son who wants to be trusted. Now I'm having a therapy session, a reminder of a therapy session with you. But I was like, I'm a son who wants to be trusted, and she's a mother who wants to protect her son. Yeah, both are both are valid basically. Both are valid and valuable. We're still at the gas station. I get out of the back seat. I'm a quick to apologize person. My wife will tell you I will apologize. Yeah, yeah. I get out of the back seat, and then I get in the front seat, and we're driving, and then I it's quiet because she knows I'm in my feelings, and so I'm like, hey Ma, I I think I realize that you're just a mother who wants to take care of her son, and I think I'm just a son who's felt very sheltered, and I just want to be trusted, and I think both are okay, you know, and that was really it. And then she like pulled over again and gave me the keys and let me drive the car. That's so sweet. No, she didn't know until 10 years later.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

No, that wasn't 10 years, but like it was like it was like no more than two years ago that I was like, Mama, well, you thought I was swerving, I just got a ticket. So we had this like really big.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

She didn't know, she really didn't know. She really didn't know. She thought I was falling asleep. It was nighttime. Oh, and it was later in the evening. Yeah. So it was dark. But she didn't know to be. That's a good mom, though. Oh, yeah, she's a great mom's mom.

SPEAKER_02 52:02

I love her deep.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

That's a great mom.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

Love you, mother. Do you speak more than one language? Uh no. Do you know why the sky is blue?

SPEAKER_00 52:12

No.

SPEAKER_02 52:13

Do you have a favorite dinosaur?

SPEAKER_00 52:16

No.

SPEAKER_02 52:19

Have you ever lived in another country? Yes. Uh oh god, I'm jumping around. Wait, let me give you one last good one. Oh, have you ever done stand-up comedy?

SPEAKER_01 52:28

No.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

Why?

SPEAKER_01 52:31

Fear. But I have been having a desire. Fear? Yeah, fear.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

And insecurity. It's scary. I tried it. I tried it. Really? Yeah. How was the experience? It went well. So I did it for like a free play. So at NYU, we do like a free play where it's like it's a segment or a section of learning where you can put on anything you want, anything you you want to do. And so I did like a one-man show with like music and stand-up and stuff, and it was terrifying. It was so difficult. It's because there's no one to fall back on. If you forget something, it's like just figure it out.

SPEAKER_01 53:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 53:04

It's wild.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

It's deeply personal.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:07

It's an art form, and I love that art form so much. Like I think I think stand-ups are like pastors to me. Like they I I I kind of like they're the oracles of the time who say particularly now. Correct. Yeah. They say the things that society needs to be said no matter how hard sometimes to have the conversations. I don't I don't think we actually need to always agree, or like, you know, but I think they bring up things that we should talk about. Yeah. That sometimes society is afraid to talk about. Yeah. And I also find stand-up to be deeply personal. And yeah, I have I've been saying that I just like want to write a five-minute set and just like just try it. You should do it.

SPEAKER_02 53:50

I will. I really believe I will. If you do an open mic, I will come and I will laugh at anything you say.

SPEAKER_00 53:57

Just really mean jokes about the time, and I'm like, I will deeply die because I've been like, damn, he's really trying to support me.

SPEAKER_01 54:05

God damn. Um but yeah, I have I have such a deep desire to do it. And I will, I I really believe I will do it. I one day I was in the shower and I like I had a I was like, this is my stand-up. And I don't remember what it is. It's in my notes. I started writing it in my notes. I was like, I need to talk about this. Oh, it was I think it was probably like wife stuff. Your wife is gonna love this episode.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

I was like, she knows I love her, so I'm like, I always talk about her and talk trash, good, badly, all the things.

SPEAKER_01 54:34

I love it. But I was like, yeah, I can't remember what it was. Oh, it's from my notes, but um, yeah, I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try it.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

I love it, I love it. That's the end of round two. Nice, all right. Round three. These ones are kind of existential and weird. Ready? Mm-hmm. Would you fake your own death to save your family?

SPEAKER_00 54:55

Damn.

SPEAKER_02 54:56

No. You wouldn't fake your own death to save your family. I guess it doesn't say what we're saving them from. Yeah. From death themselves.

SPEAKER_01 55:08

Fake. Well, I guess if I'm gonna fake it, I'm gonna still be alive. So yes.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

But they have to believe you're dead.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 55:19

That was such an impact.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

That was a really that was a really big one from the start. Let me do one uh one of the other ones. Uh if you could have certain memories erased, would you do it? Like that question I just asked.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

No. No. I think experiences shape the person. I absolutely I have so many some really bad shit that has happened to me, but I like I wouldn't change it. I have the heart I have for my life, for humans, for spirituality because of those experiences. So I wouldn't change that. I love that answer.

SPEAKER_02 55:47

Beautiful. If you could bring a loved one back to life, but they would have no memory of you, would you do it?

unknown 55:53

No.

SPEAKER_02 55:53

Yeah, that I don't think I've ever asked that one before. I think I've always sort of missed that one.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

And I just think I just I think things happen as they're supposed to happen. So I I'm I'm I I don't know if I'm kind of morbid and or or like uh I recognize that like we're on earth for a specific amount of time and like we're just passengers, and so I I respect that. Totally, you know, but I understand human attachment to humans. Oh, of course, of course.

SPEAKER_02 56:22

But it's also like it bringing them back and they don't remember you. What would be the point? Yeah, you know, what would be like 51st date of 500? Is it 500? No, it's 50, you got it. 500 days of summer days. I just see five. That's a mashup I want to see. Um if you could gain magical powers but lose one of your five senses, would you do it? And also what would what would you trade? This is a good one, actually.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

Yeah, if I could gain magic no.

SPEAKER_02 56:52

Oh, some people have actually had clever choices for this one. Right. Not not to put pressure on you, to make it clever.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

Um, okay, if I what sense what sense would I give up? And what would my power be? Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's boring. Sorry, my first thought I was like, well, super the first thing that came to me was superhero strength. And then I was like, but I would take away touch.

SPEAKER_02 57:19

You would never know if you were like holding anything or uh then nothing wouldn't yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:25

The other thought I had was about like losing my senses, but being able to have like a deeper spiritual insight. So I didn't I wouldn't need my eyes to see people or things. I would know.

unknown 57:39

Whoa.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

Kind of like how I knew to go to Howard, and I knew I sent in the one application for all these. Oh, that would be great. You can help so many people.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 57:51

You can't you should be like, apply here, apply there.

SPEAKER_01 57:54

Well, yeah, I mean, uh I I okay, so like the any power, now I'm going to get deep. But any power I would have, I would want it to help people.

SPEAKER_02 58:02

Sure, sure.

SPEAKER_01 58:02

And so I think the idea of like spiritual inside would also help people like in moments of like deep agony, hope, help, give them hope to see themselves through.

SPEAKER_02 58:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:10

Which I hope I still do today, which is the inside I have.

SPEAKER_02 58:13

You you have that superpower, Stanley. I do. If you won the lottery, would you still continue working? Yes. I I yes. Well what would you do? Here's a better question. What would you do if you won the lottery?

SPEAKER_01 58:28

Well, I mean, I did just start a production company. Now they're like crazy like billions. They're huge. Um, I did just start a production company called Gold Mines Productions. Fantastic. Um, and I would really like um beyond things that feel philanthropic right now because the production company is a newer thing, like I am having so many people that I'm connected with send me scripts, and just like I'm connected to so many creative humans who have these ideas, and I feel like a lot of times we're like waiting for the industry to approve us a find our work and they're trying to figure out who they are, and they don't know who they are. The world doesn't know who it is. And so yeah, I even the people whose scripts I have, I'm like, I just want to do this with you and for you because I I love I I love like making people's dreams come true. Yeah, you know, I think that's the beauty of being an actor, like when you can like see someone's words on a page and like bring it to life. And so in any in every area of my life, I love like whether it's like serving a church, whether it's doing event coordination, like I'm like somebody had an idea. I love being the handsome feet of those ideas. Yeah, uh, whether it's as an artist, whether it's as producer, director, all the like I I I I genu it brings me so much. I love to hear that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:37

So Stanley, I think this is the end of the interview. This flew by, but I I am so happy we got to reconnect. That's beautiful. You're in New York now, so we can actually hang out. Yes. Um, anything you want to promote?

SPEAKER_01 59:52

Anything like going on at the moment that you want to uh well, Gold Mines Productions is producing its first short, which I'm really excited about. Um and then also uh the show that I will premiere in uh DC called Fremont Ave uh is also having a stint in LA. Well South Coast Rep, which is in uh it's uh in orange like Orange County area um April May. So if you're in Los Angeles or Orange County area, April, May, well, really May, um, come see Fremont Ave. Fantastic!

SPEAKER_02 1:00:24

Yeah, oh Stanley, so good to see you, dude. Thanks. This was so much fun. It's so good to see you too, bro. All right, y'all. That's this week's episode of Working Class Acts. We'll see you next week.

unknown 1:00:35

Bye.