Neil Waithe

[00:00:14] Speaker A: In the world, there's theater, There are people who do theater, and there are people who bring art to life. Now, to know the distinction between these, you have to have the discerning eye. And I had that eye when I took a peek at the Lego Theater season finale, which would have occurred last week of this recording. That day would have been 27th of March. 27th March. And yes, the voice that you hear is a voice of that person. That is the discerning voice of the distinction between theater and bringing art to life. This is Neil Waithe of our guests here, one of our very special guests. But of course, every guest that we have is special. Neil, thank you for being on the podcast. [00:00:59] Speaker B: Thank you for having me, man. [00:01:01] Speaker A: And I must say, the very first time that this concept came to mind, your name was the first. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Wow. [00:01:06] Speaker A: And I thought, I do have to do an interview with Neil, because I remember the very first time I saw you play, I saw one of your plays was during the One man show. [00:01:16] Speaker B: Okay. Manchild at Sage. [00:01:17] Speaker A: Manchild. [00:01:18] Speaker B: Oh, at Sage. It was at Sage. Okay. [00:01:20] Speaker A: The Man Child show. And I recall it was just a day where I went. I know that something was going on on Sage. Funny enough, it was the same day that I got the news that I was gonna be starting at the Nation. [00:01:34] Speaker B: Wow. [00:01:34] Speaker A: That same day, I had the interview. I called some of my friends. We went out to celebrate. We left Cafe Soul. I said, I'm gonna go somewhere and I'm gonna do, I don't know, watch something. Sage has something going on. I went down the stage and I saw your show. [00:01:49] Speaker B: Wow. [00:01:49] Speaker A: And that was the first time that I was acquainted with your work. [00:01:53] Speaker B: Whoa. [00:01:54] Speaker A: And now we're here for full circle of this interview. [00:01:56] Speaker B: What month was that? [00:01:57] Speaker A: You remember that? Oh, my God. That would have been if. If not. I started in June, I think it was not June. July. My memory is very spoiled. But it was around that time. [00:02:07] Speaker B: The interesting thing about that is I would have done. I've done Manchild quite a few times. And in March of that year, 2023, I did six shows at Daphne. And then Sige started me on a residency. So that was actually a show called Theatre Unbounded. But because of the bleed, a lot of people who didn't see Man Child then was like, you're doing it. But Theater Unbound was what I call karaoke for the dormant artist. [00:02:32] Speaker A: Because. Interesting. [00:02:33] Speaker B: Yeah. When I did Man Child, it was to remind people to never forget to play and never lose that inner child. And through talking to audience members and yeah, we discussing rites of passages and very serious things. But it was important for me that people had fun and released. So one of the things I love conceptually in Manchild was I had a pre show, a show on a post show. And though we started at seven, I knew people, I guess they're Bajans, I guess they're humans, have a tendency to be on time, which is lit. So at 7 was when the pre show really started. From 6:30 it starts. And that means we are testing our manhood. Can you keep it up? Can you get it in? Can you score? So we play balls in hoops, Keeping up a hula hoop. How many ways can you open a bottle, a beer bottle? Like just challenges, skipping games, playing just, just. We had toys, we had bubbles, we had kites and just watching. Older people are more mature people like really dive in even more than younger people. Like even I have schools and schools are more like, you know, like teenagers, like younger children, but like little fit farmers like on the back end. And it was just like, yeah, I did this. And even before then, I did a match out show at UE for my professional practice course, Masters at ue. And I was even. So every time I go, I try to see what I can do. So when I did that at ue, I didn't want to use the theater because my whole thing is deconstruction of narratives that we currently have. The thing I have is that we can't really sustainably afford to do theater in the ways we've done it in the past, because clearly we, we've not been doing it. And one of the barriers is space. So I did it in a corridor, like a student area corridor. I was told no about 50 times. I got big up the staff at university for still saying yes once, even if they said no 50 times. Because it was a case of we've never used this space. This is so unconventional. Like, we don't even know about fire hazards. Covid was colonized. [00:04:32] Speaker A: We don't know the C word. [00:04:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I, I liked it because it was compact. It was the most. I said that. Ironically, I did two interviews yesterday because I'm always doing interviews for students for their assessments. And I was interviewing right in the space and I looked around, I was like, this is one of my favorite spaces. Like just the energy of that show was unlike anything you couldn't hide. The acoustics were there. These speakers are surround, like people are crammed in. I'm jumping over people, people getting wet. Annette Alain from bcc, her shoes Got wet up because I used actual water to out a fire. And then moving to Daphne, which is the more traditional. I was like, all right, let's do it traditional and let's do. Squeeze out all the ways it should be done. So I had a team of over 30 people, like really systematically done as a one person play. But team of over 30, like media team, like teams on every level. Directed by Sonia Williams. And after that I was like, okay, I want to strip away all of that. And I've been talking and I identify Sage, when I first came back as his spot because I've been. When I first came out of Barbados, I spent like the first month just going to spots. Martin's Bay Cafe, 195 GTE Flash Zone. Just going to all these untapped spots. Bagatelle just seeing why are they not doing events? What events have they had? Kovally 6 road. Like just asking questions of the staff, asking the patrons, trying to figure out the right blend. And Sage was that it was only South Coast. South coast is active on a bus route. It's a home sign about a home. The home. But you know, a home has character. [00:06:11] Speaker A: It is one of the. The finest places I found to just enjoy the arts. Whether it's like poetry, music and it has that real. I don't know if I want to excuse the word bohemian, but it has a bohemian vibe. You can just, you know, sit on your couches and get outdoors. [00:06:26] Speaker B: It's hard to recreate that. So then I came up with this name, Theater Unbound. Not the strongest name. My problem is a little stiff. I knew it was kind of elite elitist, like the Theater Unbound. It sound almost like you're supposed to say with a British accent. [00:06:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:06:43] Speaker B: But it was important for me to put the word theater in it because there's not a lot of theater happening. And Unbound was important for me. I work a lot with trying to figure out what word. That's why I land at Lego. Yeah, it's like trying to figure out what word works. So the show you would have. [00:06:59] Speaker A: That show. Yeah, go ahead. [00:07:00] Speaker B: The show you would have ended up on actually would have been my earliest show in. I did two shows in June. I did July. It did so well. I did a second show in July and then once a month after that till December, then the New Year show. And that was the most magical moment because now I don't. I mean, thank God for the National Cultural foundation that they would give me space and light and sound. But now there was even Fewer limitations or. Thank God for university, but still university. No, I'm. I can do anything. I got banned and then what happened? I. I don't know if it was your show. It might. Since you saw Matcha, definitely you might have actually witnessed. And I don't think you realize because I didn't plan to do Mancha really. It was just the requests, the want, the desire, the realization. All these people had not seen it. I did that was. I started doing extracts of it. So it's a one hour play, which I've done at 25 minutes. I've done different variants, but I just started pulling extracts from it on that night. And it just went off so well. People just really were drawn to it. So I started. Kept doing it, like sometimes 10 minutes, 20. Oh. I think I was supposed to do it in the second half, but then I think it like time had already elapsed. So I think I had like 20 in my mind because I just want to do hour and a half shows. I probably had 20 minutes left for my clothes. Like, all right, let's do a real compressed version of how this went. And that's probably what you witnessed. [00:08:20] Speaker A: So you really. Because I came in very midway, like, close to the end. Yeah. And I remember we went through a lot there. And I know that you would have mentioned so far, I heard actor, performer, student. I've seen you at shows taking pictures as well. [00:08:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:40] Speaker A: And I've been trying to figure out, like, what exactly does he not do? You're like the Ryan Seacrest of performing theater. Like, what. What would you say? Like, what's like, all the things that you do. Like, honest day. [00:08:52] Speaker B: The thing I encapsulated as is visual and performance artists. The first time I wrote that when I was traveling, it couldn't fit on the travel document. And I was so nervous to write it, I missed out performance. I was like, does it have an rf? I was so nervous. Am I really? So the visual aspect, one of my things I do that people rarely would know I did that I did a lot of in Jamaica is lighting design and operation. Actually won some awards for best lighting design. I. At my college, at Namali College of Visual Performing Arts, I was the first student lighting operator. I would have learned from Calvin Mitchell, who is known well, who is a master drummer of Jamaica, the highest order of drummer. He's also an actor and a lighting designer for many years, but he was retiring and I kind of. I just wanted to learn. I just like, can I learn something new? So lighting for me is a Real passion because it allowed me to like be on stage. Like I've lit for chronics and all these different artists and like I can't ever play the like mega bass. Who's Shaggy's bass length. It wasn't me. So all these different musicians that I've lit for and given and people started because I would put like performance into the lighting. Like I'd be like if you're around me, it's like I any show. Like I go every vibes like every beat I I feeling. So that was sign I even did some like rigging for on Spice show. I despise kfc started doing some work and so that's the technical side and I quickly and I yeah, I had the honor to work with some good people man. Buju show happened. I lose his name now. But he does Nicki Minaj. He does, he's a Jamaican. He does all the lights for everybody. And I remember asking him can I do lighting and act too? And he was like, you can't do both. He was like, you gotta pick. Because then after lighting I got into photography. I was always kind of into photography when I was a Nation journalist. [00:10:49] Speaker A: So you were at the Nation. You were here as you were talking about this before we even hit record. Yeah, that you were at the one of our chapters where we had the Attitude magazine which is a youth based magazine here at the Nation. [00:11:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's 2010-2011-2010-2011. [00:11:07] Speaker A: I know you were mentioning that as an anecdote. We want to dig into that. What was your time like here and what did you learn while you were part of that project? [00:11:15] Speaker B: Oh my goodness. Start your day with the Nation News epaper. Enjoy the accessibility and new upgrades of the Nation News Epaper daily. Whether on our mobile app or Nation News website. For added convenience, use our new audio read feature which reads the newspaper aloud or look in the archives for any publications you may have miss. Get your news your time, your way with the Nation News e paper and enjoy our new Upgrades the Nation even. It's so interesting that this is the first time I actually parked here. Maybe one off time before, but it was just so nostalgic. I have nothing but great memories here. Like I still work with a lot of people that I met here. I work, I do work BT and it's Coretta and Tracy Moore and Hermina. Like so many contacts and beautiful people I would have met here. I work with Puffy. I know him from school but he was marketing and I wrote Puffy back then. He was marketing Shipping and magazine. And we were at Cornmere. I say we were at school too. So Nation, really my first major thing was a back page when bus fare went up. [00:12:30] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. [00:12:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So DLP had just come in. Buster. I broke that story. I did that back page and I was like, yay. I was so excited. And then I did a really cool one. Justin Marvel took me on. I love to go out, I love to go and get stories. He was going interview Brian Lara. He's doing a charity event at his home. And then there's a word for it, don't remember. But basically you got main story and you could kind of guess like story on it. [00:12:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:55] Speaker B: So like I took the opportunity to ask Brian Lara about 2020 and he was like, it'll never work, it'll fail. And I got that back paste of him saying, 2020 will never, it'll never succeed. [00:13:07] Speaker A: Does he regret that? No, I ain't no standing on business. [00:13:10] Speaker B: I'm so proud of that. I so proud of that man. And the thing is this being at Nation put a camera in my hand. And the truth is, fortunately, unfortunately, reality is we really value things. This thing we are recording in has value. We really value cameras and lights and tech. People are paid not just handsomely, but they're paid effectively, efficiently and on time because the value of things. And for me, I value things. But then from back then, I really valued stories and humans and I just love. Even I did this beautiful article at resume for better health of this guy. He lived close to St. Leonard's and he was like a national Olympian, like Senior Games. And he'd run to work from Eagle hall to Banks Beury's and he was like 70 something. And two things he told me that I still remember to this day, he was like, he always gets home and put his feet up and do nothing. He spends time doing nothing at the end of his day and the beginning of his day, whether that's prayer night, but nothing. He always drinks water when he first wake up to just simple, simple anecdotes. And just like. And that was my first page on magazine too. And yeah, Nation just really just taught me just coordination too. I was a sports and leisure coordinator and managing people and managing corporate and managing life and managing the human interest stories and really trying to delve in. So just that training and like Karl Martindale, like so many people taught me, like they don't even know, like the training I got from that one, signing up for that one attitude thing was just like invaluable. So My little logic back then was I could be a journalist. And I get used, well, doing journalism to get stories, to make plays. [00:15:00] Speaker A: That's a bright idea. [00:15:01] Speaker B: That was the whole cheat code. And then I didn't get into Carrie Mac Caribbean. I didn't get to do journalism in Jamaica. My best friend got in and I go. They said, okay, but can you go and do PR in our western campus? I felt like such a rejection looking back, and I was like, I would have said yes, because PR is so important, but. But I end up getting there because I end up going to Edna Mali, being around Sherlock a lot. And I just always love media man is. Is really. It's really the fourth estate. It's really important. It's really vital. And I did do a SBA about how print. There's a 10% thing that was happening, and basically, like, in 10 years, there'll only be 10% of the print in the world. Because back then, magazines were out of Barbados. Like, all the magazines were going out. And the concept was that no one will be reading anymore. Radio will be dead in 10 years. [00:15:52] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. [00:15:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. That was the kind of logic. This was like 2010. Like, the logic, by 2020, who's gonna have a paper? Who's gonna need a newspaper? [00:16:01] Speaker A: It's funny because even now you have those conversations about media and the future of journalism, and those predictions are still coming out, you know, and everyone believes that we're getting closer and closer. I guess, like, by logic, you would be. [00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:16] Speaker A: But we've yet to see. The interest in papers is still there. The people. I will say that people are reading less, but people are still reading the things that they care about. [00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. For sure. The validation is still there. I think that's one of my things Nation gave me because I was an intern first and then Youth Nation at Shoot magazine and then Better Health. It really stabbed, like, a level of professionalism from I was a teenager, 17, 18, and how to operate. And I carried that. I've been asked to work at two newspapers in Jamaica. I've carried that. I've done marketing teams at my college. I've carried what I learned in this building we're sitting in throughout the world. And through everything I did. So it was really foundational. The Nation for me. And I mean is. The Nation is one of the biggest branded things on the island. [00:17:10] Speaker A: It is the big red end. Like, it's unmistakable. [00:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah. We can't deny that there's. You say what you like by me and Harold Hoyt. Come on. Man, Fred Gallup. These people are legendary in speaking our culture. Like, we don't see them as artists, but they literally are artists. Journalists literally are daily artists. [00:17:31] Speaker A: I had that conversation with someone like seeing like journalism as a creative. [00:17:35] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:17:35] Speaker A: Creative. And a creative business. Like, we are in the business of like, when we take people's stories, we have their conversations, then it's up to us to craft it in a way that is true to who they are but also like really evokes that feeling of when you're there face to face. [00:17:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:50] Speaker A: That's. That that takes a long to do. And you know, being in the business, you appreciate what it takes to actually. [00:17:56] Speaker B: Craft it in a time. In a time constraint too. It's not that you got two years to write a novel. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Every day is a deadline. [00:18:03] Speaker B: Yeah. You know. Yeah. [00:18:05] Speaker A: I think it's like beautiful what you said about stories because like, that's something like for me coming from Cuba, when I first arrived there, like, I didn't have a lot of people to interact with and I delved into stories to just like pass the time. And that there is what drove my interest in, you know, in media, in. In journalism and being able to have that privilege to tell those stories. But like, I joined this back to your show because. [00:18:31] Speaker B: All the way up. Yeah, it's a lot. [00:18:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:34] Speaker B: Oh. So let me, let me go through your things. So I do lighting. I always start there because people don't know that. One I want, I forget is that I'm a teacher. I do facilitation and art therapy. I've done it in several juvenile facilities here in Jamaica. So those are two ends of the spectrum. Facilitation and lighting design. And in the middle then there's photography, videography, there's acting. And that's it. Like acting then encompasses everything it needs to encompass. I should be able to hold a note well enough in 100 mass choir. I should build a whole note relish enough in a one man choir. I should be able to move well enough. Yeah. And even literally always challenging myself. For the first night ever. I was a chorus member in last year's folk concert because I'd never been a chorus member. It's just a stupid thing that sounds really like ego y. But I just was like, I've always been usually like the lead, so. And for me, people mean so much and everybody means so much. But I've never seen it from a chorus and that I was able to gain such relationships. Man. Craig Carrington and Nikita, who's in my company Right now, like, the relationships built and the ability was able to help the choreographer Levy and the director Levi, and able to, like, be on the back burner. And then, honestly, those choreographies, like, doing separate. Like, that was. I lost so much weight. Like, all I missed, like, oh, my gosh. Like, honestly, dancers are not appreciated. Like, even we see them on crop over stages and stuff. It's not a joke. [00:20:13] Speaker A: But they go for hours. [00:20:14] Speaker B: It's not a joke. [00:20:15] Speaker A: They go for hours and hours and hours, and it's not a joke. When you go to one party and you would dance and you would feel winded, you'd be tired, your legs are giving up, you know, trying to get down, get on, get on, get on. Pose. And then, like, whatever it is. Yeah, your legs done. So you gotta take a break. [00:20:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:33] Speaker A: And then you look at them and they're doing everything you're doing, but they're not stopping. [00:20:37] Speaker B: And they're doing a high level. [00:20:38] Speaker A: I'm doing a high level. At a high level and smiling and there's still more party to go. [00:20:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:45] Speaker A: So it's incredible. [00:20:46] Speaker B: So I love. I love taking in different perspectives. Even literally, the reason I came back to Barbados is Barrio Williams asked me, can you come in nine days? We starting this ncf, started this project at the. Well, I thought it was the adult prison. The joke of life is if I knew it was juvenile, I would not be here because I'd already done juveniles in Jamaica. And I was getting these things. Like, I was distant from Barbados being away seven, eight years. And I was like, I gotta reconnect. I gotta re anchor. I feel like, well, there's media I can watch, nation news. There's so much I didn't experience. I didn't experience the volcano, the many light flashes, so much on the ground, things that I did. I was feeling very disconnected from Barbados. And I was like, all right, there's a chance to give back. What better way than to go and help the murders reform themselves? And then I got here, I was in training, and they were like, yeah, so the boys. And I was like, boys. Literally, I found out in training and I impacted my life. I'd come back home. [00:21:47] Speaker A: So you trained some younger people in theater. [00:21:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:21:52] Speaker A: And what was that like going into that space? [00:21:55] Speaker B: Me here at Barbados or Jamaica? There's two different things here. [00:22:00] Speaker A: Especially, like, working with, like, those juveniles. [00:22:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Barbados. Honestly, my first cohort was the single most talented group of boys I'd ever been around. And I've done quite a few programs both Here in Jamaica. And I think it was also a combination of experience I had had. And the thing I do and I really love is that I strive to find out their interests. It seems very simple, but the first thing I want to know is, who's your favorite artist? And then from there, I going home and I listen to every tune from that favorite artist. I dissect any music videos of all their artists. And I coming back and I like, yo, he ain't real. Watch how he faking. You say he killed 10 men. He ain't killed 10. He just saying that he think he's doing drugs. And then we could talk about acting from that point of view, and we could talk about artistry from that point of view and then allow them to just write. Usually they're stifled and said, don't write about violence. Don't. And I was like, nah, just write. And then when they write everything, it's like a journal. And now I learned so much about them. And then I can say, did you really have to say that? But is that. Let me talk about that artist there, that fake it. Are you saying that because you feel you gotta say that, or you really feel you gonna say that? If you feel you gotta say it, say it. But maybe you could say a different way that more people get the message. And from that. The thing I'm really proud of, proud about with that program and is my few cases where you make suggestions and I see instant movement, like, instantly, they got to work with Buggy nte. They instantly, they got a studio where we're red boys. Like, literally next cohort. Right now they got film equipment, like, instantly. And that was. That's like the pro NCF lost the contract or whatever. But that meant everything to me to know that these very talented young men know how to studio, that they could build their life on and inspire other youths that because is wanting to talk and be in a closed room. Because a lot of work I do is not recorded, you know, but the fact that they can spit down a mic and reproduce it and produce it for me, that's just. It seems simple, but that's one of the most fulfilling moments of me doing any art facilitation, any art therapy, seeing tangible things come in, like, literally the next months, and, like, they got him to work with amazing producers and stuff. And. Yeah. [00:24:18] Speaker A: Was it easy for you to shift into that mentorship role? [00:24:22] Speaker B: I've been doing it for most of my career. When I was in school, I used to train. I was in the pageant scene, and then I Used to train people for pageants like Miss Barbados and Miss Teens and walking and talking. So when I was a teenager, I was training people and directing things for church. So it's being kind of there. And then when I was very young, Russell Watson threw me into Mustard Seed Boys. And then I did community arts development program for the government. All these things when I was like 17, 18. So I've even trained people older than me from very young. So it was, it was not challenging. It's just being a constant because Lego is like a big facilitation workshop. [00:25:04] Speaker A: I was gonna say like when, like watching the show, how you are with many of the actors, it's still like you're their, their mentor. And I saw like in many ways with. During the show you were still coaching them while they were on and giving them little tips here and there. [00:25:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:19] Speaker A: And it was a very, seemed like a very respectable relationship between the two of you and that they really took your advice and you know, you really led them to improve as they were. [00:25:28] Speaker B: On stage and on that. Since we could fast forward to the future, now, the present, what people will not know, and I don't want to harp on it too long, but it's really the truth, man. There's something called post show blues and I always warn actors about it. Is that what if that I wish I did, if only I didn't. Yeah. I always tell actors leave everything on stage because when it's done, it's done. You don't know when that you get opportunity to do this thing that we're doing. A lot of actors in the world, very little of our life is acting. I even use Rihanna as an example. Very little of her life is actually singing. So much is life. Business meetings, very little is what you actually want to do. So the time you're doing what you want to do, please give it your all. So after this last show, I probably had the worst post show depression. I sat in the car like for like an hour, 45 minutes an hour, just like wanting to cry but knowing I couldn't cry because I work with medical school here and I had a 7 o' clock all day exam because I assisted my actors. Lego actors go there and all my actors were tired and I had to go seven o' clock in the morning and it was like three in the morning. I was like, I can't cry now because I don't know when I stop crying. I don't cry often. So they like build up tears. And the thing that happens for me is weird because It's. It's so challenging and it's. It's really psychological. It's so challenging to appreciate the good our CD good. Like all I can see is the bad. Like all that's why I really. I'll tell you like I really spoke into me. I really wanted a long form to be to squeeze out some of this because if I bracket down to three things for me is crowd control like parking. Because the show Sage said we had a record amount of people there ever in their history. [00:27:15] Speaker A: You guys had the parking lot. [00:27:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. People are on top of each other. Crowd control meaning there were people who were standing that. That those things personally. [00:27:24] Speaker A: Myself included. [00:27:25] Speaker B: Right. Those things personally hurt me. Like those things are things that keep me up. Like people would not even know. But like parking. If mentally you got stress about parking. No you're not as released. The whole point is to get you to release. And if you got come and stress about sign that he's got stress boat in town or in building busy or Warren you think in traffic removes what you're trying to do. And then standing. I don't want you standing, man. People not a lot of people argue to me it's cool, man. Blood, pills, good parties. And there's no party. There's not. I don't want to call it a party. [00:27:56] Speaker A: You could argue that. You know, if you have so many people that is. You're left with standing room. That's a sign of a successful. [00:28:03] Speaker B: Yeah, you see? You see? See, it's how you look at it. Because metrics and economics. Yes. And visually is a good look. But in reality I want every. If every single person does not have the greatest night of their life, I have failed. [00:28:16] Speaker A: You're thinking of your people. [00:28:17] Speaker B: Right? So that's standing the parking. And then the third one for me was balance and flow. I look at balance, flow and boundaries. Boundaries were broken because I try to go an hour and a half 90 minutes. I I am very aware of people's attention span out and in. And I have a. I spend the most time on the running order. That's the thing. I several whiteboards. I spending more stress on flow and show flow. And because it was so full a lot of things were different. I usually have my stage manager nearby. She keeps me up. But she was like. But I didn't see her for the show so. But I should have really taken the time to delegate like a segment of the show so I can go talk to her and restructure the flow of the show. So I felt like the Flow of the show. It started hype and it dipped. So that would hurt me forever. Then I didn't do, like, two of the strongest things we had, like, because of the best of is trying to compact these eight shows we've done five episodes into one. And it's like two of the strongest things I never do because I was concerned that we'd run over time. Like, time was gone. So now I'm regretting. I'm like, I should have just do it. I know the audience would have loved it. And those things are what keep me up. Those things are just like. And I don't get another one. And the next one is just the balance of. I have about 18 actors and balancing them and putting them in the best position to do great things. I just want all of them to be great and balancing that one show and not using one set too much and others may not feel a part of because they didn't do as much. Those are the things that eat me, man. So this. Yes, particularly in me. We had the attorney general there. We had Marc. They had a BTMI there. We had Nation. Like, it's like all the people come and y' all. They must see the best show. Like, that's. That's always fun. [00:30:05] Speaker A: What were the two that you would have wanted to put in but you didn't get to? [00:30:08] Speaker B: One is called world's worst. [00:30:10] Speaker A: World's worst. [00:30:10] Speaker B: World's worst occupation. So we just get a bunch of occupations from the audience, and you get to see the worst. So the last time we did, we come. Well, normally do one occupation on the fly. Every time I'm facilitating, I create something new. So I've never seen it. And we did it three in one. So I think we did environmental consultant, fireman, Something like that was crazy. And because it was so challenging for the actor, it was so good because the environmental consultant, fireman and gravedigger is interesting. We had an air traffic controller prostitute. Like, when you do an air traffic controller prostitute, the story that. Right. So she's there. She's there leading people into the promised land, letting the planes enter. And then this body is trying to board the plane. And then the actor at the end switch. Anybody who's boarding a plane and getting a lot of problems trying to board a plane, and she wanted a little money so she could board at the end. She was like a police. Like, she turned out to be a police. And we was looking for you the whole time. And it's like, you can't write those things. That's what I Love about improv. I always say the audience is the final ingredient to creation. Yeah. We could go and create. And the next sad regret I have is that the things we create at rehearsals. Because it's improv. [00:31:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:28] Speaker B: Oh, sometimes, like literally our gram rehearsal, I did a gram rehearsal, did a workshop that weekly. Not to show stronger than the show. Like stronger improv. Like people have no concept. So then I used to be like, oh, I failed. And then next thing was band days. Gibson, one of your people, Gibbsy Dan was on episode one. And we sometimes break down music. We. We take a song. We take Coco. We did Coco Tea. We did Maisie from rpb and we had Gibson, episode one, his song band is. And that just got some of the best response that we ever had. And we didn't do it. I wanted to bring it back because imagine a van of 20 actors going across and the van is getting more and more full and we didn't. And it would have been a nice close. It would have been a nice climax. And we did semi rehearse it a bit. But I think I had doubts I. About our refinement because I never want to put them on. Even though it's improv, I've always weary of putting them in a position where they are not a hundred percent confident in themselves. So if there's any doubt, I think that's why I didn't do it. And world's worst, I was just like, man, the show going long. I got rap. So it's always like this tear while the show is going on. A flow. I monitoring audience levels and interest. And time is still a night of work night. And so it's gotta let go. Some stuff. It's gotta let go. But then I hold on because I'd be like, what if people ain't no. [00:32:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it's that. I mean, it's fantastic, like to watch this, the improvisation of it. Because I always said there's not enough theater in Barbados. But your theater is very unique in that when you go there, like, you don't know what you're gonna get. [00:33:04] Speaker B: We don't know what we're. [00:33:04] Speaker A: You don't know what you're getting. Yeah. And I know, like, there was a game show where it was the kind of like the reverse cat call. [00:33:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:13] Speaker A: That was very interesting. [00:33:13] Speaker B: It's a joke until it isn't. [00:33:15] Speaker A: Is it a joke until it isn't? I know you had Andrew Pilgrim on stage as well. [00:33:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:19] Speaker A: As a. [00:33:19] Speaker B: As a little boy. [00:33:21] Speaker A: A little boy with the whole K to the monkey. [00:33:23] Speaker B: Yeah, so that. [00:33:23] Speaker A: That those stories are interesting. These are stories that actually come from your personal experience. [00:33:28] Speaker B: The is a Joe until it isn't. Literally came out of an experience of a. Well, cat calling is big. When we did cocoa tea, the first thing was a woman at bus stop and basically a man Coco teed her. Right. Because the whole story is Coco tea. Oh, that Coco tea is a bitch. And for some, it's a poison to me. [00:33:48] Speaker A: Oh, that every time. [00:33:49] Speaker B: Right. [00:33:50] Speaker A: So sorry, people. I'm. I'm from lands far away. [00:33:52] Speaker B: Right, Right. So. But that's what we tried to do. We tried it and then got Maisie. Right. So me and Maisie, Santa the Grinch got harmed by Santa Claus, like. So we'll take this story and rebrand. Rebranded. But at our last show, episode four, a patron was, for lack of a better word, harassed by another patron. And it was not overtly sexual or physical or anything, but it was just, you know, a man trying to think and a girl come to a show alone. A man sit next to her. She move, he move. Show done. He's still trying. He's still trying. He's still trying to the point that she felt uncomfortable that he might follow her home. And that was related to me. And that's something I had to deal with. Literally hours before the show. I didn't sleep, Lynnette. Last year, I didn't sleep. I slept. I got off before him at 4:30. I was supposed to sleep till 5. I overslept till 6:30. So I. [00:34:42] Speaker A: So you sported again. [00:34:42] Speaker B: I sported again. [00:34:43] Speaker A: But what was that conversation like? [00:34:46] Speaker B: It was just to let him know that collectively we've made a decision that we don't want him at the show. And his. His major combatant, which is understandable, is that's not his character. He'd never do that. And I had to constantly tell him, it's not about your character. It's not about you. It's about your action. You did an action that made somebody uncomfortable. And we have to be responsible enough to make our patrons comfortable. This thing is called let go and release, so you can't do that. And that's where it's a joke until it isn't. We've had a lot of debates and quarrels and discussions at rehearsal, and that was literally, that is to date, the most divisive one we'd had. And what happens, very simply, is that women have had traumatic experiences. So it unravels that our company is full of women. But then some women might feel that a woman has to do something differently so she's not in opposition. Which some people might call victim blaming. So some women, even though their women might hold the position, but you can't let men do that. It's gonna tell. Men do this. But women have different body types, different social backgrounds, different traumas, different. So, like, that was a real headbutter. And that's where. And we just knew we had to do a women's piece. And I was not gonna do it because one of the main actors for it was sick. Lucy. Lucy didn't make it. And we didn't really rehearse it. And. But I remember saying, that's why if I'm proud of something, Monkey bite one. Because that was like, one of my, like, gems. And I hold back from doing Monkey Bike. I try to do less. [00:36:14] Speaker A: Right. [00:36:15] Speaker B: But to see Andrew Pilgrim come on, he was. [00:36:17] Speaker A: Man, I am good. [00:36:18] Speaker B: I am. [00:36:19] Speaker A: He took that role. [00:36:20] Speaker B: No, I am. I am just sorry to get Toni Thompson on stage too, but I am good. And then the women's piece, I'm happy that we did that because whether it was polished or sharp or whatever it was, it happened. And I have women who literally, at the last night said they remembered that because it. It did something to them. And that. That meant a lot to me, man, because. And I just sat by, let them create. That was. I had no touch influence in that. It was just the women. I was like, there's a women to do it. [00:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:50] Speaker B: And the men will be. The bodies will be objectified and do what you have to do. [00:36:55] Speaker A: I looked at that as a very important piece as well, and very important piece of commentary because I know, like, you look at the old folk songs, those same folk songs that you mentioned, and it's like, scarily normalized, like that cat calling culture. [00:37:09] Speaker B: Every time she passed down here, she'd be looking so good. [00:37:12] Speaker A: Good. [00:37:13] Speaker B: I can't wait to do that one. That one day I got holding. [00:37:17] Speaker A: And so, like, when you met, you do this commentary on this very real thing, but you also do a lot of commentary on very personal, vulnerable moments. So what's it like to be on stage, like, in front of people? Some, you know, some you never met, but you're just bearing your soul like that. I know there was a point where you kind of brought someone. You asked a question, I believe it was to someone to come forward with one of their more vulnerable stories. What's it like for you to be there and, you know, bear your soul out to that? Is there ever a moment where you feel any trepidation I foolish or no. [00:37:53] Speaker B: What I'll tell you about that show is that's the first show that somebody did not bear a story. And why it is because I always had this theory that when it moves from 50 to 75 people, humans get more restricted. That's why for me, intimate theater is a cheat code. Because the stories people have told in every ever, ever episode. Because normally we have about 75 people. We have about 65 or 75 people. That show we had about 150 people in there, right? And all of a sudden you got so many people and people are now afraid to share a story. Happiest day, first breakup, first people don't want to share nothing. And I still blame myself for that because I have a way of getting people to talk and I just allow y' all to sit back and be bougie. But I don't really. I am most honest on stage or an interview. I always say communication is my best feature and my worst feature because something about in front strangers, I could just record more, you know, I could just do. I gotta do and just talk, talk the talk and be open. So I just feel, I feel a responsibility to be honest to audiences because I've been in for audiences for so long, I don't got no whatever happened when it comes to my. I could whatever, right? Interviews, whatever. But then when it comes to like personal, like my immediate family, our partners, yeah, I might be whatever. But because I care so much about what they can say and their opinion, there's some filtering. So stage actually allows me to be unfiltered. I'm most unfiltered on stage with limits. Because this Barbados and branding is a real thing. So I'm still aware. But yeah, I, I don't feel no trepidation. I honestly, I used to bear more when I used to do theater album. The show you would have seen. [00:39:39] Speaker A: I know I would have. [00:39:40] Speaker B: The show you would have seen was being far more soul bearing. Now it's more packaged and shiny. [00:39:45] Speaker A: Now I recall it was a story about like someone who cheated on you. [00:39:51] Speaker B: Oh yeah, I do. All my breakups, all my bullying stories, what's been like. [00:39:56] Speaker A: You're the most heartbreaking story you've heard on stage. [00:39:59] Speaker B: Ooh, you don't got to say names, but heartbreaking actually. You see, this one is an interesting1. About two shows ago, this guy was in the B B, B B B. This is why I show you like a girl for people. And somehow I got away. Picking people who want to talk but don't want to Talk. And I saw, I, I. Anybody want to come on? And I saw him. I was like, you, sir? He was just at the back. Like, the back is back. And the girl that same was like. And I said, so, you know, I'll come. It's cool. I got a car list. I'll come to you. And I went to him, and he told a story of a breakup, and he told a story of being together with this woman for many years. And then one day she just left him. And we replayed that story all in jest or whatever, but that's a serious story. And the beautiful thing about that for me is when I was packing up, the bar closed. I packing up. I was one of my last people there. The guy was like, you know, I got enough more stories. Anybody tell me anytime you got a show. No, I could be in the audience. Yeah, I got more tell you. How about, you know. Yeah, it got more recent one that worse than that. [00:41:01] Speaker A: Whoa. [00:41:02] Speaker B: And let me show you how things fast forward. That same guy came to our last show and he brought a friend to tell stories. [00:41:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:09] Speaker B: And then get there late. Then was like, the girls are here. And it was like, we bring this modest man. Got a hard bracket story for you, boy. But we get there lit, boy. We have it for you. And what's happened. And that's happened almost all of our shows that set that one where the body who talks is like, strangely enough, the warm body. I somehow get the body who do not want to talk at all. And when people just crack and release because very rarely we get a chance to talk. It's literally therapeutic. It's not therapy, but it's literally therapeutic to just tell your story and share your story, but then see your story played back live in front a community of people. And then you get to edit it. So it's a little God complex. You get to see your life played out and you could kind of fix it. [00:41:54] Speaker A: You can change the outcome. [00:41:55] Speaker B: You could change the outcome. So it's actually cathartic. So people that everybody who's told are like fans for life. Anybody who's ever come on a stage, I remember. I'll tell you one interesting. Okay, then out there, Tion Hernandez. Tion was supposed to be starter pack. We going to unpack, start a part. Tion got called to go train that the same night Ction called me before. So she can't make it. Boom. Cion was at theater unbound. I did the story of how Tion's son I call. She called him a bear. How he Got conceived. I did that story. She met this man in pandemic and things were lovely. Boom, boom, boom. The full story of meeting this man, child conceived, pandemic, as the man disappears, just like that. And I felt. I felt like that was too personal because my sister's a psychologist. And my sister was like, neil, because the rule is you kind of don't tell. Things are ongoing. So she was like, Neil, that was a little like, that's still going on. She's still going through that. And I called her next day, I messaged her. I was like, yo, you was good with that being told, like on stage. And she was like, yeah, like, that's our thing. But I would have thought. But that was an epic story because to hear of a relationship we get from when they meet in the cafe soul, we get to all the love we get to the conceivment of the child, we get to pandemic. Done. And he must start answering phone just like that. [00:43:13] Speaker A: He just goes. [00:43:14] Speaker B: Because he don't say. Yeah, because he don't say, I'm going to tell you. [00:43:19] Speaker A: Like, it's funny because when you said that, I was there at the show in the capacity, like, I was working, you know, and I'm familiar with how your show works and what you said is absolutely, like, true. Like, that is that sense of therapy. But also, you can change the narrative of something that really, you have control over something that you had no control over. Yeah, but I did think, like a moment, the thought came to me to go up. Oh, I was gonna go. I was gonna go up. But at the same time, I could. I didn't know that I could class it as one of the worst. [00:43:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't communicate that well enough. So the ones for that. That show was like, worse experiences. Happiest day of life, first day of school, first kiss, first breakup. I kind of do those. I like to tap into nostalgia and what I do first or worse, I try to do something that's far. Like, my monkey bite story is me literally being bitten by a monkey. Audience member literally told me yesterday. She didn't know that was a true story. But that was my first memory. I just took my first memory and made a story. That's all I did. [00:44:21] Speaker A: But the funniest part was that people thought you had, like, you were some kind of monkey man after that. [00:44:25] Speaker B: No, that happened because I've done it so many hundreds of times in schools and stuff, and that was just a variation. I don't know when that came out, but, like, how I would Just get Pilgrim. I would let the audience tell it. So now I've seen audiences fill in the line so much and that was just an interesting one that happened in one of the tellings. Like I think a child became a monkey. So we just like that ending. You got a million endings, but that. [00:44:51] Speaker A: Ending, it's very Marvel Comics. [00:44:52] Speaker B: Right. [00:44:53] Speaker A: You just get bite by a monkey, you become monkey. [00:44:56] Speaker B: That ending was just funny. So that might have literally been the second time I've done ended it like that. [00:45:00] Speaker A: That's fantastic. [00:45:00] Speaker B: Cuz Andrew Pilgrim, he was D for the cause. I was like, he's going to bite people. [00:45:04] Speaker A: He was like rolling on the ground. [00:45:05] Speaker B: Yeah, he was doing the most. [00:45:07] Speaker A: But like my, my story would have been like very similar. Someone that was talking to through Covid and then as soon as, you know, Mia said we back I was saying I was excited when I. With her. [00:45:21] Speaker B: Right. Relationships is a real. [00:45:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Like as soon as the pandemic finished or I could not. I could not hear this from this person. [00:45:29] Speaker B: But you know the interesting thing, if you talk therapeutic, a lot of us really haven't got past what happened in Pandemic. No, like it just happened because you. [00:45:36] Speaker A: Haven'T really had those conversations. [00:45:37] Speaker B: We never. Everybody, every single human went through various things in pandemic that we just, we just bury and we move forward because humans are so adaptable. But pandemic, you just give me. That's a whole. I could do so much shows on this pandemic. [00:45:52] Speaker A: But I. But that's why I felt I didn't go out because like for me, what you said with, you know, the person who was dealing with someone had a whole child with them and they just disappeared. It's crazy to me how many people had that same situation where people who, at a moment where, you know, you were at your most vulnerable, you couldn't be out there in the world and. [00:46:13] Speaker B: As a person you chose to be. [00:46:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And they became kind of like your anchor, you know, like you're constant source of communication, your support in a way, trauma bonding and then they disappear. Like there's so many things about COVID where like. Yeah, we really haven't had conversations. Yeah, we. I don't think we even grasped how it affected it. And also when it ended, it was just so business as usual. [00:46:36] Speaker B: But also didn't really end. It was never a bell that was rang. There was never a buzzer, a siren that said Covid has ended. So we just. [00:46:43] Speaker A: Yeah, we just went from this reality and then like back to the rat race. [00:46:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Again and what's funny to me is now every time I hear somebody say that I got that bad flu going wrong. Everybody's got a bad flu flu, but nobody naming their monkey flu, snail flu. We ain't naming no more flus. It's just that bad. We ain't trying to nail it. [00:47:05] Speaker A: And I hear you for six. Really? [00:47:06] Speaker B: Yeah. I got that bad flu. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I think it's a part of our life forever. But I think that we've kind of just collectively agreed to not talk about it. [00:47:14] Speaker B: Is interesting. Yeah, it's very. And then let me show you a serious thing. Tambo being disconnected from Barbados. What Barbados went through. You see, everybody taboo individuals had a thing. Communities had an experience. I did not experience. I did not. I experienced it very briefly when I came. But I was the last cohort of people at the Paragon. I came out the Tuesday the storm. Whoever stormed out Barrel or whoever came. Not barrel. They went from before. Elsa. [00:47:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:47:41] Speaker B: She came Wednesday and they shut it down. And people no longer had her quarantine. Right. I was the last set this in July. I came back Barbados. While y' all were experiencing. I had like the lockdowns. Y all had like that. Like, y' all don't. Y' all went to a kind of war. Like, Jamaica is a different country. [00:47:58] Speaker A: Like, you have a breezy. [00:47:59] Speaker B: No, you have. No, I didn't think. Let me show you. I did not think about. It's not that I was vaccine unvaccine anti vaccine. I didn't think about a vaccine till I got Barbados. It was not a concept in my mind. Like Jamaica, there was giving all people like 10,000 Jamaican and free KFC to go and get your vaccines. That's how people was not born soldiers and police was not wearing masks. That's not a concept. I always tell people, nobody don't follow traffic rules. I run like Saint Germain. So then when Covid come in the beginning, taxi men were super. Ironically, taxi men was wearing the most rules were the most afraid could them as deal with people. And I remember they were spraying money with alcohol. [00:48:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:40] Speaker B: I never forget that. But after a while, like, you see like lockdown, y' all used to make me laugh. Like, lockdown was at 9. At 8 o' clock, the road's empty. In Jamaica, it was 9. [00:48:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:48:51] Speaker B: The roads are busiest at 10 o' clock. That's when everybody know trying to go home. People like, all right, I guess I get left here. But Barbados, y' all. [00:48:58] Speaker A: I remember the 11 o' clock curfew. I was afraid friend Y' all was savage. He was driving and he couldn't drive. And it was like 10:30. Bar was closing. Bar at Sharon and Aon no longer there. Bar was closing. We had to get all of us home. He was all the way down in, like, Westmoreland. 10:30, curfews at 11. We're trying to get everybody in the car before I guess the car turned to a pumpkin or something like that. [00:49:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. We are so well behaved. There's something called the 1625 Barbados slave code. At 400, 438 ways to create a perfect Negro. It was devised and mastered in Barbados. And that thing is not a joke. Like, we. Barbados has some invisible reins on us. I mean, our principal prime minister helps as well, because how y' all were being spoken to, like, I. I can't explain it. Coming from Jamaica, coming here, I felt like I was like in some concentration camp. It felt. Let's defeat. Healing of the country. I don't think y' all realize what that does to you mentally. Like, my first couple months, I was re. I. It was such a. It was such a hard thing for me to deal with. Like, everywhere on your radio, everywhere you go, get this, do this, like. [00:50:06] Speaker A: And we were very. [00:50:07] Speaker B: Y' all were. Y' all were going through it, man. [00:50:09] Speaker A: I think there was a very. It was all too thorough on, like, making sure that everything was up to code. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Yeah, y' all are. I keep saying y' all, but. No, it's me. I know. I. I transition. [00:50:22] Speaker A: Do you feel like that time in Jamaica is like how Jamaica handled the pandemic and how we handle the pandemic. Is your feeling that here was a little bit too. I don't know. [00:50:34] Speaker B: There's not too. Or. I don't think at the time when you don't know what's happening, there's a good way or right way. I will not forget the prime minister of Jamaica very early saying he gave up and he can't deal with this. He actually said he is not trying anymore. That was a few weeks and we never had a. We had one Easter weekend. The only lockdown we had was a Easter weekend where, like, Good Friday. It was not supposed. Good Friday to, like, the Sunday you're supposed to be in, like, literally Friday night, Saturday. A whole Saturday. And then it open that Sunday. That was the most. [00:51:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:51:06] Speaker B: Like, how y' all was holding that. Because they also. There are a lot of elements. Over 50 of Jamaicans are hand to mouth. They live hand to mouth. So you gotta look at economies at the end of the day, we talk about things hard. In Barbados, our support system is different. Our families are closer. In Jamaica, if you're in Kingston, your family live four hours away. The people that live four hours away don't really got that much. Like, it's not. Is very complicated. It's 3 million people versus 300,000 people. So there are a lot of factors to say. And then it's just the culture. The culture of Jamaicans is not Barbadians. It's very opposite in many ways. So I wouldn't say it's good or bad. It's just very different. And then, particularly when it started to get a little tight in Kingston, I moved to the country. And when I learned to farm, because I was not about. I guess that was avoidance, my avoidance character. But I was like, I could use this time to edit more. I started my podcast. I've only released one episode, But I did 15 episodes of a podcast, and I was editing projects I want to do. And I was training for Manchell, and I was learning to farm. I was like, I do a lot. [00:52:11] Speaker A: You do a lot. So it's like, what if you could, like, have the list of all your talents? Because you. I now hear farming. [00:52:18] Speaker B: I don't have a talent. [00:52:19] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:52:20] Speaker B: I was figuring out skills that you learned. [00:52:22] Speaker A: Like. Like, you. You seem to be someone who, like, is very open to new experiences. [00:52:26] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:52:27] Speaker A: Has that always been a part of you, like, from young? [00:52:30] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. The first thing I wanted to be that I remember wanting to be is when I learned you could be an inventor. I was like, you could be an inventor. I want to be an inventor. I quickly learned inventing is so hard to do. Like, the amount of trial I write do not have the patience arc here. So I moved on from that. But I want to explore, so I want to be an astronaut. But then I learned I gotta do, like, math and science. I ain't trying to do that. So everything I've done is like, how? And so that's why when I landed journalism, it was like the perfect blend of all the worlds. It takes you. It's like the closest thing to acting. It takes you everywhere in. I love humans interacting with anything. You don't know what you can do today, tomorrow you don't know where you can be. So I think I was always very exploratory. I was always. I didn't color. This is my origin story. I didn't. I would refuse to color. I refused to do puzzles. I refused to drink tea because because they said you had to. And nobody could tell me why you had to. And I didn't like being two of things you had to do. No, my fine motor skills are very poor. I literally have a thing called retarded fine motor skills. Yeah, because your development is very. It's very important to do things play with play, though. I know that. No, but no one could tell me that. If they told me that, maybe I. [00:53:43] Speaker A: Would have explained to you. [00:53:44] Speaker B: Yeah, they didn't explain, like, even, like, the R word. Like, I was saying the R word, and no one could tell me definition. And I was just like, why did God give me a word to say that's gonna get me in trouble? But I was very. I was very exploratory. Like, very. Like, steal $50 to buy a ring pop. Like, I didn't know what money was. But anyway, could just. I didn't understand why I couldn't. Shouldn't. [00:54:04] Speaker A: You could just take it. [00:54:05] Speaker B: Right. Because I quickly learned that I. I knew I was an actor very young because I learned that in this world, it can't be honest. In. In nursery school, I learned that. I learned that. [00:54:16] Speaker A: What made you learn that in nursery school? [00:54:18] Speaker B: Because adults were honest. They wanted you to be dishonest. They want you say things a certain way. I say good morning. I do what they say, but not what they do. I watched her observe that very young. I said, okay, so between the age of like, 6 and 16, I didn't really get in trouble. Like, I brackled again when I, like, went sixth form head boy, too. So then that was a whole, like, trying to lock me down, try to tighten my badge. But by the time I went sixth form, it was done. It was like, I want to see what this world is and not to harm nobody, but just to see what I could do. Like, my mind didn't think of limitations. And big up. Tony Thompson, Alison C.D. smith, Simon Allen, Patrick Foster. When I was taken to watch them at 7 in 6 form on stage at Frank Karma Hall, Chetty Tate, our tour Tapping Tables Will Turn, it made me realize that I had real actors in Barbados. Literally, that was it. I know my change in point was up to then. I was like every other body. Like, I could go Hollywood and wait tables and live in my car and I could live, dream. And then when I saw actors doing it in bar, I was like, wait, you got people that's at, like this. To this level here. And from then, I had no. Hollywood is not a concept. It's not a thing. I care. And then I've met hollyweather artists, actors, stars, famous people and it's not where it's cracked up to be. And I always just figured if it's not uphill battle for me here in Barbados, I have to build a hill. That's an advantage. But to build a hill, they gotta know the right sand to use. I gotta find the right tractor man to do the hill. I gotta get engineered to make sure the hill is sturdy. I gotta rent the space for the hill. I gotta hope it don't rain. I gotta train to run up there. So it's so much we gotta do to build hill. All of us in our generation I say our grandparents could have never said I wanna be an actor. So that's why I start saying I wanna be an actor. Like because from saying it I believed it. So from 18 it's just like everything I do is figuring out. So everything you say, everything skill I've learned is that. [00:56:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:18] Speaker B: So I learned photography because I knew it was an immortal medium to get your point across. And this concept of comic strip plays like can I tell a plan? Nine panels like oh, you got reals. Oh yes, dude swipes carousels. No, I had this concept lighting design was like I know I not sure that people really being innovative in their lighting, they just do. They just throw lights but they're not like carving lights. Like lights could tell a story. So I learned that for that I learned sound design because how is the resonance of my voice sounding? I learned videography because obviously you got like that's the thing. The thing I've not and I mean now I've learned marketing facilitating all these things honestly is just like a. Like I don't like I just like that I don't. I don't want the show. I never get to act. I don't forget to act no more. That's really crazy part. But it does bring a strong sense of fulfillment to watch others, particularly the audience members particularly. What was the guy? Ronnie. What's the guy? The former head of dlp, Ronnie Yearwood. Yearwood. He was at one of my shows. Like he was at one of my. And I didn't know he was at the time. And I remember during my child and in March out I challenged men and I just picked he out. Like he did feel like he was hiding something and I was going around to he and I was challenging this man and I silenced you to a fight and all kind of thing. And then he wife is a fan of mine and she. He was like inviting me to come down George street and do things. And I just saw and at that same show a guy next to him sign told me to leave here alone. I didn't push you too much. Just leave this. This guy look like he would actually beat me. And this guy that was so reserved I danced with this guy. So moments like them when audience members is coming at arms folded and it's just particularly men because our demographic, any theater demographic around the world is always women between 40 and 60, well read women, educated women who the roundabout of Barbados gets a little monotonous for them. They like culinary arts. They like their palette being explored this way. Food and rum does so well. This is why there are a million food trucks. Because we're on an island. So people want different experiences. They've seen brunches and parties and bars and lines on the beach. They've done it. They've roasted breadfruit. Then what? And that's the one beautiful things about Lego we have an inexhaustible resource of stories. I call it sand castles because every human is a sand castle. And if I just take a grain of sand from your life, I could make that into a film. One story from your. So now I don't gotta think about having writers because that's one of the challenges we got with doing plays. Writer. You need this writer and refiner. LEGO has. I have proven that I could write on the flight like humans are doing. Facilitation workshops have taught me that humans are the most talented and the cheat code is Barbadians. I think we gesticulate using gestures only second to Italians. We are very gesticulated. We are very expressive. So it lends well to performance. Can be a little challenging for film because film is a little more muted. But my whole thing is knowing the break. We get refined skills. We get transposed the best scenes. So the best of Lego. All these scenes that did well. How can we now storyboard them into short films for social media? And now they're immortalized. I know we don't have to do them again. We could do other stories. So it's a real long game to eventually having a cruise liner. [00:59:42] Speaker A: Yeah. How long have you been with Lego for now? [00:59:45] Speaker B: Lego started in October of last year. Our first show was November 29th and is important. And then we did two shows. Independence, Walker's Reserve. Then we did St. George. It's important to be connected to independence. It's also even though we're not in season, the show you watch was in crop over. I was always told as a young theater Practitioner even I was in laugh it off. And I would tell them why y' all don't know. Shine crop over. That's a bacchanal time. That's the tent time. That's party time. And I like ice cover events. Ice cover events. And I thought I see the same people at the same events and just be kind of bored. And when I talk to them, they want something else to do. [01:00:22] Speaker A: Yeah, you want even like you said, you've done it all. What's next? [01:00:26] Speaker B: Yeah, my thing is I think there should be a theater. Theaters should be in the NCF calendar of events beyond four Concert. Like, I mean, the thing that burns me and this is not my target market, but we've all seen it. The people who come off the ship and walk the other side of Pelican Village and walk to Cave Shepherd. [01:00:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:45] Speaker B: And then just get to the. And they don't really see Barbados. So those are thousands and thousands and thousands of people that we could do shows for. That's not my target. I know I can get there. I have contacts to cruise lines, all that's good. Hotels, that's fun. My thing is Beijing. They say Barbados too small. I don't believe in that. 300,000 people. I only want 3,000 people. If I have 3,000 loyal people, I can do shows every month, twice a month, easily. It's not. I'm not trying to do 500 or a thousand people a night. If I get 50 to 75 people, that is a damn good night. Paying money out of pocket 25. I ain't trying to kill them in a 60 ticket because I ain't paying that. I look at it like it's me. I like theater and I trying to pay 60. A good theater, like, rough ain't rough to pay 60 and be like, big up the theaters. But I'd be like, that's 60, boy. Yeah, that's 60. They want me buy a drink too. [01:01:39] Speaker A: And he drinks. [01:01:41] Speaker B: That's not that way drinks. [01:01:42] Speaker A: You gotta wash it with your throat dry and. [01:01:44] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, probably like more. I don't drink none. [01:01:50] Speaker A: O' Neil. It's. I. I wish we had. Like, I could talk to you for hours. Really. I gotta say, like, being able to experience your show was fantastic. It was a bit terrible that I only went on the last day and I left feeling that I wanted another one. [01:02:06] Speaker B: That's perfect. Yeah, that's exactly the feat. When I planned this season, you see, I knew I could do the last because these last minute people. I know, I studied the culture a Long time. I don't know. Everybody can be like, I got mad. And then when they don't get it, you hear, it's November now. You build up this anticipation. That's. That's the whole thing. That's the whole like, that's what we do. Crop over on November. It's called November 2nd. Crop over. Like, that's what all the parties do. They build up this anticipation. I using the same model, I pull in all the different models of everything I've studied parties, events, bars, I pull out all our models to try to create this thing. This thing is not a five year pro. This is like laugh it off. Just celebrate 40 years. I want to do 40 years of Lego, but I don't want it that I am Mr. Lego. I am the host our facility. I. I cannot wait to just be an actor anything. Like I tell them the artists all the time. The problem with the challenge with every group, whether it's boy band or calypso band crop over. Band bands. Humans, human. Like these resources. Having a camera is easy, but humans are the hardest resource to manage. And that's why bands and groups is end this end. Because I am Beyonce now. I don't need y' all Nabi. So LEGO gotta be a movement. It started as a company, it became a community and then no, honestly, with family, like there was a LEGO member I dropped she home from ue all the way she lived. So of course and I had to come back west. But I was just like, I know you get on a van at this time of night. [01:03:38] Speaker A: Precisely. [01:03:38] Speaker B: But she would have. I was like, you can't do that. You can. I'm not going to show a LEGO member in hospital. No. [01:03:43] Speaker A: Like you guys are like family now. [01:03:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. Is. And all of us, because we are artists, we're isolated humans. Like I am a very ice. Like as much as I'm extroverted, I spend most of my life alone. I spend most of my time to myself. [01:03:55] Speaker A: You don't have that aspect of like someone that is would be. [01:03:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I like myself, I like people, but I also enjoy my own company. Our one on ones, I like one on ones I don't really like. I tell them that all the time. But there's a sacrifice. There's a sacrifice so that me myself as actor has a place to go. Like I can go. Because since Lego, a lot of people have is the same thing of somebody sell corn on the side of the road. Everybody sell corn. Somebody sell coconuts. Everybody sell coconuts. Several people have approached Lego Actors to do something very similar to what I'm doing. And LEGO members will come to me. This body kind of tell me they want to do improv dinner theater. Not if you hear is that body but this body. I never tell them go long. Like it's like I don't want you feel like you. I don't own you. Go and do like LEGO members have no dancing pint. Like the amount of gigs people have gotten since just being associated. I always taking calls and just yesterday a student made me feel so bad. She was like. I was like, how you doing? She was like, you didn't get back to me. I was like, what? Nor my class. Because you guys give you a lot of actors too. And I ran my emails and she sent me a sign before show in January like the day before. And I messaged them. I was like, yes, be the day before you show. I can get back to you. I can get back to them. And I feel even though that's free work, students and children is people and the elderly or I've worked with the Special Olympic team as well. People like those. I will forever do free work for it. Like it's not free. It's not even charity. It's just like how can I not. How can I say no to that? That's what we in it for. Even like going anywhere. I can't wait for Jerry actually to finish Bill because for me I want have a relationship with. With helping people. Even hospice care, like transitioning. Like there's so much avenues LEGO can go. Like we already work with the medical school and medical facilities. We used to just do exams. Now I do classes, I do the psychiatry, I do blood. I do classes with students. I've. I've seen some of these students from first year that no they just do their final exam with. So that's the real expansion of what this thing can be. And the beautiful thing is it don't require you to be trained or be ridiculously talented. You just gotta be human and honest. We have a LEGO member there, Jamario. He has never acted a day in his life. And he was our lead actor in Coco T episode one. Yeah, he came with his girlfriend and he was just outside and I was just like, you want to come in? And I just loved his honesty. Like acting is just being a good human. It does seem simplistic. But if you listen to any actor who you might like Denzel or whatever, the reason, the reason he could get true to us and you could hit your heart is because he's a Good human being. So when he's talking, he's not, he's not adding fluff. Like acting, you don't really want act. The word is actually a misnomer. You actually want B. We talk about that in a show you want actually just be true and like an interview. [01:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:51] Speaker B: So like journalists would be the best, would be best actors. Because listening and reacting, you got, you. [01:06:56] Speaker A: Got me wanting to try, you know. And I think a big part of that, Anthony is also like through your interactions with people and speaking to people, you know more about how, you know more about individuals, you know more about personalities. So you have to play in that personality, you know. Well, I know what it's like to play someone in particular role because I've spoken to people, I've been around them like that. [01:07:16] Speaker B: And you had a sense of empathy. Yeah, that's a big. I, I tell them that all the time. Like we, we always, a lot of us are very Barbados. It's very non confrontational. It's not that we're passive, it's that the country's small and you don't want the wrong person. And then you. I know again, I wrong country. So it's actually a mechanism to survival. But confrontation is very important. People is killed tight like it is and down to brass stacks. But I think quarreling about a thing. We say we quarrel too much, but. And no action. But I rather be quarreling and not quarreling. So even at Lego we have disagreements. A lot of people's like, like a lot of company members like, nah, this uncomfortable. Yeah, we think drama. We think the very thing we do is uncomfortable. Like we can't live just happy. Go lucky comfort. It's uncomfortable. Me too late in the beginning. I will share with you. Like I told them, this is the hardest thing I've ever done. Everything seems to always be the hardest, hardest thing I ever did. Like laugh off was the hardest thing in 2023 Manchester was the hardest thing I did. Theater unbounds the heart. Like it's always the hardest thing ever. The Lego was the heart or is the hardest thing because the humans involved. That sign I could not have predicted. I had looked at models 21 page business plan, all these things and audience and production and all these intangibles. But the real intangible is humans. Humans going through breakups, humans going through health challenges, humans going through dips in depression and humans and a lot. It's like now I have like 20 children. It's a lot. And in the beginning I ain't gonna lie Like, I used to have, like heart palpitations the first couple months, like legit, irresponsibly enough, I didn't get checked. And meanwhile, I was at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, sometimes doing hard things, exams with literal palpitations. But I attribute that to stress. Like, I was highly stressed. And when I started, I knew that I had to be at a certain place of health. This morning, when I was doing, I tried to do yoga, meditation. I write every morning. And this morning, the thing I was thinking about when I go back into next season is I definitely have to be healthier, I have to be more balanced, my breath has to be more balanced and my boundaries have to be more sure. Because one of the weaknesses or major weakness was my breath at times was erratic. Even that last show, that's actually the thing I regret most. I didn't take a moment for myself in that day. I did kind of my creative moment, like a minute, but I didn't take 10 minutes to just settle, settle my energy and my focus, settle my breath and know my boundaries and my limitations. So oftentimes I push past boundaries because I just think, like boundaries are meant to be pushed past. But that's not always the most healthy thing. And Lego really is wellness. And that's, that's the thing I talked to everybody about in the beginning, but we really lost sight of it. And I was fearful of losing sight of it because you can get caught up in the production of the show and the product and not the process. And the process really. Like we have a Lego line tomorrow. We try to support each other and everything. Like, I want to do limes, I want to do retreats, I want to just exhale and not do for the product. People still asking us to do things and I keep saying no because you have to know when to rest. In this day and age, we don't. We don't rest our phones, we don't rest. We just do, do, do. So if Lego is anything, if sustainability means anything, I got also look at rest, I got also look at recovery. And I all got. So I look at balance. I put on a lot of weight. I kind of lose back some of it now. But there was because I observed Ramadan, so that helped me. But I was just, I was just emotional eating. I was just dropping home a lot. Dropped home and like before our first show, I dropped home, had 11 people in vehicle, 11 from St. Lucie, Hot Row, St. Lucie to Silva. I this card Illeggo mobile. Yeah, it's called illegal mobile. And we stuff ourselves and props in there. But I was dropping and having long conversations because after I drop people, everybody want to talk to me individually. And I ain't got. I bad with boundaries and commerce because I feel like people got squeezed out all they got. But that took a toll on me because then I would just go to the gas station and put whatever in my mouth and go sleep. I wasn't. I stopped doing yoga, I stopped writing, I stopped reading as much like my school life suffered. Like home life suffered. [01:11:49] Speaker A: They weren't looking after you. [01:11:51] Speaker B: So that's the big thing, moving anything, that thing, balance, breath and boundaries. That's the thing that in this off period, we gotta look at where that fell short. And then we even lost some members. Not like they're not alive, but they couldn't commit. And looking at what that means in terms of me, they're still family. Like, it's real hard to remove somebody from a group who would come to you and pray for, like, Neil. I need this. People have. It's not really a. Yeah. You don't have to call no names. Because now they've said it to the wider Lego company, but several of them have literally said, even our last rehearsal, they don't care what people say. People might find this triggering or whatever, but they're like, this thing has kept me alive. And the amount of times I heard that in the first weeks and months is when it. It stopped being a business real quick. It stopped. It started being a social enterprise. Like, it also couldn't be a charity, but it had to be people centered because that became the thing. And then realizing the inefficiency of myself in terms of tools to deal with people who literally might be having mental challenges because it's artists. And just as I tell them they're very spectrumy, everybody laugh, and then they get distracted for five minutes, literally. I say that at a time at our final thing, but what do you mean? You can't say respect for me. And then, like, five minutes later, I said. I paused, and I was like, y' all wanna know why? I just said y' all spectrum. You realize I said that five minutes ago, right? And I mean, the whole world is spectrumy. I think everybody is on some spectrum. I mean, the word spectrum suggests there's no absolute, there's no fix, there's no blue there, no colors. It's gray. We did a playboat that the color truth is shades of gray. The color of truth is shades of gray. So it's still to figure out balance. And balance is not perfect. Balance but is the attempt at balance. So you want to see saw. You are never really still, but you're trying to be still. You on one foot, you never. We are sitting here and the earth is moving, but we trying to think we on a chair. Are we adjusting? But is the attempt at balance. And at some point I stopped attempting balance because I was striving for to care about everybody. And that's also a flaw I have trying to care about everybody and maybe even if it. Even if it hurts the product because my standards for acting at theatre are unrealistic. I did drama school for eight years. Like there are few people quote unquote as trained as me. That's been. I did it for years. Then I. I taught and then I worked at the school which does it and I did film. So I understand what we are. We can't. We can. But I am not trying to compete with whatever you think Netflix look like. That's the visual people could do that. They could film people could do that. I just trying to get truth. And truth is very small and it's not very sexy and it's very boring. Truth authenticity is very boring that the thing is not sure. The best moments we've had of Lego is long conversations. One on ones, two on twos. Group conversations about serious issues, about self. We spend a lot of time drawing our goals, coloring. We just spend sessions coloring. Spend sessions in silence, figuring out what silence feels like. How is our. I never did a trust fall. The first time I did a trust anything was the dress rehearsal and one of our members broke down crying and I told. I warned them about that. I was like guys, I was going classes and projects and I expect people to trust fall or release to strangers. But I wanted like that's not normal. So I did something called Tower Strength, which is not full trust fall. People are all around you. It's very cushiony if you let go. I don't really go past maybe 30 degrees of the ear axis. But a couple members, some broke down because we don't realize how hard it is to trust other. And these are people we wait for six months and you. And you get have. And I. I understood that it's not easy and you gotta respect And I always say no talk, just respect wherever the body goes through to release themselves into you. And I I did that and to just show us that it's not easy. What we're doing is not easy and we can't take it for granted. Even me, I can't take it for granted. Is. Is big Work. It's big work man. [01:16:21] Speaker A: Yeah. And we were obviously we as audiences will not take it for granted. I certainly won't. When is your next next season? [01:16:30] Speaker B: November, November. The last Thursday in November. [01:16:33] Speaker A: The next year. This year. [01:16:34] Speaker B: This year. [01:16:35] Speaker A: This year already at 2025. [01:16:37] Speaker B: But we'll be doing performances. I just yesterday got asked to do something for one of the week gatherings. There's always people who want us to do pop up performances and I myself the interesting thing we have to talk me but this whole thing is my master's project. Oh actually yeah. I'm doing entrepreneurship education and creative arts at University West Indies. So everything I've ever done is boat Lego. All of my projects I use it to refine. I spend time even undergrad. Everything was towards my child. My whole logic at school is you should not come out of school. I just got a paper with ink that somebody could copy and like what's paper ink? I have no I never had care for that because from not coloring and not drawing those things didn't move me. Those things didn't move me. It's all about connections and why could learn the intangible. So I will be doing a massive show for my exam. So that's definitely gonna come like June, July. I went inside crop over. I met Rico more like skip two events to come to it. But yeah so I was between three things. I don't know where you land but the three things was I want to expand manchild into man children and direct it with a full cast and I direct it as opposed to. So since I've done it now 25 times plus as a one person play. I wanted to see what I can Now I have so many different variants and scripts. What would happen if I directed it man children because there's also girl child coming and then girl children. There's all all in the. In the of conversations we gotta have. That's one the second one that I really passionate about. I call paper ink which is the emphasis we still place on paper ink in our society. And I always say why can't the Carpenter get a PhD? Why can't the journalist get a PhD like it's only like these certain things that get that we seem to value and we do. We all know that SGPP whatever name Polytechnic. We all know that that's the real degrees. Everybody agrees that hairdressers and mechanics making the most money last technicians. We agree it but something in us we still value the body. I got a psychology degree that I know what to do with it. So I probably have a large Lego exhibit of all the things I've learned of trying to do this thing. Yeah. So look out for that. That'll be my master's final project. [01:18:58] Speaker A: Anil, it's been. It's been a pleasure. I'm looking forward to your grand show in June, July, after you finish your masters. [01:19:05] Speaker B: And grand might be very minimal. I might want to allow 10 people in. Well, I mean, that's. That's. [01:19:10] Speaker A: Well, save a spot for me if that's the case. But thank you very much for being here, letting us know about not just Lego, but you. It's a pleasure for you to be here. As I said, my first time when I got admitted here into the Nation, I went to see Admitted, like, as a hospital. The very first time I applied here at the Nation, and I was accepted here at the Nation, I went to see your show to celebrate. So having you here is. Feels like a full circle moment. [01:19:39] Speaker B: And I thank you for being. I've been super, like, watching you from afar. Like, you like this new crop, y' all outside, because y' all, like, I was here 15 years ago or whatever. Like, people. I didn't feel bad because people didn't used to know, like, people who were superstars to me, like the general public there. I mean, I knew the Maria Bradshaws of the world and stuff, but people didn't know so many people, the Carlos Atwells and things that. On the road, working hard, hard, and you all have taken it. And really, digital media, they power digital media. So now people see your face and they value media. And I respect media in a different way because media got the power. Politicians and all that. Media run the streets. [01:20:22] Speaker A: And it's all right. We gotta. We gotta move with it responsibly. [01:20:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:26] Speaker A: But of course, like, the downside is that I can't hide anywhere. [01:20:29] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you enjoy that. I don't want to get that popular.