No Such Thing as Coincidence: A Spell of Story, Survival & Soul

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
What is happening? Hello? Friends, so happy to have you
here with me today at Radical Joy. If you've been
here before, welcome back. If this is your first time
with us, well we're glad you're here. Each week, we're
here with you talking to ourselves about things that weigh
on our minds and hearts, hoping if you're dealing with

(00:31):
something similar, we can adjust our perspectives as you listen. Hey,
if you're struggling with something that needs immediate attention, please
know that help is available. Justile nine eight eight nationwide
in the US to reach the Mental Health and Suicide
Crisis Hotline. All of us here at COLW Studios believe
that mental health is a vital part of our well being.

(00:54):
The more people I meet and the more places I go,
the more I realize how important it is to make
people aware of the fact that there is no shame
in enjoying the parts of our lives that are incredible.
It's time for some Radical Joy and this week, the
three fingers pointing back at me are for our guest
Deontay Michael. You can find him on all the socials

(01:16):
at Tayta so Bougie. You can find that in the
notes so you know exactly how to spell it. His
artist's name is Deontay Michael. Also in the notes, and
you can find his book Blood of the Fae, and
we're gonna make sure that we put that link in
the notes as well, so you can get your own
copy of it whenever you're ready. Ladies and gentlemen, thank

(01:37):
you so much for joining us, as well as please welcome.
Put your hands together. Give a whoop to our friend
and guest, Deontay Michael.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
He come into a thunderus. Apply, we come into a thunder.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Apply our Sineohll is standing at the front. You gave
us a whoop, and I was like, rah, wow.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Thank you for having me. Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Absolutely, it's so nice to have you with us. I
want to make sure that I mentioned the fact it's
so nice to have an author on the show. It's
wonderful to have someone here as a a purveyor of pros.
And now, from what I understand that your book is
the first first I say, addition, maybe episode of a

(02:20):
seven part series.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yes, so Blood of the fat is like a passion
project of mine. I love fantasy, I love magic, I
love witches. I love this is Mela by the way
she's she's so needy, and so she's gonna probably be
in and out. Eventually, she's gonna go get down.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
She's welcome anytime.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
I'm a fan of everything fantasy.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
I'm a fan of everything magic.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
I'm obsessed with Witchcraft in the TV way, not the
like Wicked religion, even though I researched it heavily, and
I just wanted to put something out that was heavily
fantasized with people of color in it, because I don't
often see a lot of books or movies that will

(03:09):
go into these high fantasy worlds and have people of color.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
Usually because.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Elves and dwarves and all of those things are created
from Norse mythology, they generally will not have people of
color in them.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
And I'm obsessed with those things.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Greek mythology, Norse mythology, all of those things really get
me going. Eu robot mythology, you know, mythology from Egypt
and all of those things.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
It really gets me gets me going. So I can put.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Myself, well not myself, a character that I really really
like into those stories and religious expanded because why can't
fantasy have people of color? Why wouldn't it have people
of color, you know, And I'm hoping that this first
book will lead to six more, if not three at

(03:59):
the minute.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
But I have so much to say.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Great, fantastic, And that's the thing. We love like lifting voices,
especially of authors, to make sure that we get more
literature in the world at a time where it feels
as though imagination and creativity are stifled by either political
leanings or with I mean the influence of AI in
day to day life. Absolutely, it's so important to make
sure that we continue to cultivate our artists and their community,

(04:25):
to make sure that we continue to hear the stories
they get to tell. They're so important.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah, thank you. I feel the exact same way. And
it's very hard now to find stories of substance. I'm
not saying that my story is full of all this substance.
It's literally about witches and where wolves and well shifters
and vampires. But to have a place where you can escape.
I'm huge on escapism as well. That's proba playing my
video games and stuff. But to find a place where

(04:52):
you escape and you also can imagine yourself in that place,
I'm huge on that. Like you don't have to live
in reality twenty four to seven. But when you escape
reality that you also don't want to feel like, wow,
I'm not welcome here either, So.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Agree making your own space. And I love that. It's
one of those things where it's ownership. It is your
own stewardship of a world you create, and the rest
of us get to hopefully, you know, use our own
keys to get in to enjoy it with you. Yeah,
and I love that. That's wonderful. Now I also know that, oh, sorry, please.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
No, that's exactly what I want. I want people to
join my world and be like, oh, there's an entire
coven of witches over here who I look like. Or
there's an entire coven of vampires over here that I
look like. There's an entire coven of shifters even though
they're a tribe, and then the Kingdom of vampires in
the book, they're called different things, but for relatability, you know,
you can join and see yourself and all these different things.

(05:49):
You won't have to be like, oh, I can only
be a vampire, I can only be a shifter, I
can only be a witch.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
Everyone's welcome everywhere in my books.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
I love that. That is amazing. It's one of those
it's so funny you bring this up, and I please understand,
I mean this in the most appropriate way possible. I
watch a lot of TikTok. I work in social media,
and so I'll see a lot of these things, and
we're always hearing about the cookout.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, and the thing that.

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Thrills me when you start to say that, I was like, well,
that makes all the sense in the world that there
would be witches of color, especially black witches, because the
way they use their seasoning is basically magic. That makes
it all the world. It's like, of course, and I

(06:35):
wouldn't take it if you think you can use it, you.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Want to integrate it.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah. I know.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
What's interesting about that is that when you look into
like the wicked religion, or just like the creole religion,
or some of the things that come from down South,
a lot of like cooking and a lot of like
things in the kitchen and like community things together are
also seen as sometimes witchcraft because you get together and
it is a ritual. Not so it's not so much witchcraft.

(07:04):
I mean, it's seen as witchcraft, but it's not really
witch crap. It's more so about not about more so
leaning towards pagan religions and you know, traditions and things
of that nature. Pagans really really, really were all about
community and you know, rituals to keep the community together,
not necessarily to use their community to to inflict things

(07:28):
or affect things outwardly, but to make sure that their
community together was whole. And a lot of their practices,
you know, have trickled down into the mainstream as different things,
but you can still see where a lot of those
pagan beliefs came from, all hous Eve and you know,
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and all of those things,

(07:50):
bringing people together to do this one specific thing, these
rituals to make sure everybody in the family were good
and everyone in the family was in care of And like,
you know, back then, I'm sure they didn't call it
like a mental check in or you know, an emotional
check in, but that's what they were doing. They were
checking in on each other and just being like, hey,
these are practices and ceremonies we're going to do to

(08:11):
make sure we're good. And when that started being very
outwardly noticeable on you know, now your family are so
happy because you did this ritual. Other people are going
to do this ritual and it's really just them. It
was really just them coming together to be like, hey,
are you okay?

Speaker 2 (08:28):
And that's how it progressed.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
And now it's like I'm going to light a candle
and I'm going to say this spell and that's going
to make me happy.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
And it's like, well, you're.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
Also missing the part where they got their family together
and they talked about their emotions, like let's not let's
not miss the big steps exactly.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
And it's always so funny the things that you're talking
about seem so common sensical when you think about it.
You know, you're talking about giving something a name, a
very like woo woo, modern age YadA, yeah, yeah, like
a mental check in. Back in the day, we didn't
pride ourselves so strongly, so we didn't need to give
it a word. It was just what we did to
make sure that those bonds remain very, very strong. Just

(09:09):
like so many of these rituals that we talk about,
Honust to God. I think so many of these things
are very simply recipes. They are something that people bring together.
It is the community that imbues it with that mysticism,
with that incredible power and then because we're all together
doing it, there is a very strong connection between us.
Whether you see that as like a force or a

(09:30):
spirit or a filament, or it's just literally like this
amoebic type shape form thing. The power of gathering is very,
very important to the whole system, and I think that
may be part of the reason why forces have tried
so long to keep us so far apart. This staunch individualism,

(09:53):
this incredible divisiveness that they continue to sew among individuals
just because of whatever color they choose to put for
whether you're talking about, you know, a Hogwarts house or
a political party, they continue to divide instead of bringing
us all together because they know the farther apart that
we stay, the weaker we become.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
Absolutely how strong is your hand when it's not together.
It's like, you know, thank you.

Speaker 1 (10:19):
You can insult, but it's way more effective if you
draw it up. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
I love the way you speak on this because it
sends my brain in seventeen different directions. It seems so
unbelievably common sensical. We try to make something big and
magical and very specific and just beyond comprehension or understanding,
whenever it really just comes down to using the power
of your own community and your own people to strengthen
what you already know to be true.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Absolutely, and that's that's that's also something that's very important
to me. I always tell people, my friends, my family, everyone, like,
you know what you know, so know that thing, so
know it, stand in it and to be true. Don't
allow others to take it from you. And I was
talking about this in depth with some friends of mine
because I'm not very big on organized religion, so and

(11:10):
I was talking to some friends of mine recently just
telling them, like, you know, I understand your religion, and
I'm not against your religion.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
I'm just not for organized religion.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
But what I dislike is that you use your religion
to talk down on other religions when you're all doing
the same thing.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
And it's just it's just very confusing to me.

Speaker 3 (11:29):
Instead of coming together and being like, my religion says
I need to do X, Y Z, your religion says
you need to do X, Y and Z. Why can't
we do the parts? Why can't we both do X
together to make the world better? And if we disagree
on Y and Z, then we'll go do why and
you'll go do Z. But when we do X together,
we could literally make everything.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
So much better. If every if everyone's.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Religion around the world says feed the hungry, why isn't
everyone feeding the hungry? Be kind to your neighbor. Why
isn't everyone being kind to their neighbor. If my religion
says that women can't wear pants and your religion says
that women can wear pants, well, you know who, I'm
not going to get upset at a woman in your
religion who's doing something that her religion allows. That's not

(12:16):
going to affect me. But what I will say is
my family won't The women in my family won't be
wear pants. You know, if that was my religion, and
it would be it would be fine, you know, and
I wouldn't impose it on anybody. But then we can
come together and say X. We can do together and
make everybody's life easier.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
But that's just me. Who am I I am just
one person.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
You're a guy with great ideas that honist to God.
I think you reach to the very center the crux
of the whole situation that so many of us have
completely lost the theme utterly. The thing that you said
that really wrung so true in my own ears while
listening to you talk so good, and I love it
and I just want to, like again, kind of pluck
it out and throw it in front soever and look

(13:00):
at it and listen to it. My religion tells me
that I must. At no point in any religion do
you want to hear my religion tells me that you
must if you are a follower of the same religion.
That is a conversation you can have and moving forward,

(13:24):
I think you need to understand that your religion governs you.
If you are a faithful follower of said religion, I'm
gonna need you to stay up out my backyard. You,
me and mine are using our faith whatever that may be,
if if at all to handle us. Yo bees wax

(13:44):
is yours. Please keep your bees in your hive. Thank
you so kindly.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
Absolutely absolutely there is aggressive me too.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
There is literally Noah. I am such a person who
is very much like that's that's in your camp now
unless it gets like really really deep and like you know,
I have gone down the rabbit hole when it comes
to scientology and you know, moremons and you know those religions.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Because I had this, I had this.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Super in depth time in my life where I was like,
I need to understand religion. I have to understand it
in all ways. So I started researching all these religions,
and you know, I went down these huge rabbit holes
of these all these religions that came about, you know,
I don't want to say like after Christianity, but they
came about in modern times and modern days, modern times
and modern days, because.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
You know, they're all much pretty old, and it just
a lot of it.

Speaker 3 (14:43):
I like look at and I'm like, if you were
raised in this, I can understand how you are indoctrinated
into this and you one believe it and there's no
one there to pull you to the side and be like, hey,
grain of salt, grain of salt. Take all of this
with a grain salt.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
But then there are other people who voluntarily albeit a
lot of people are searching for things that they did
not get growing up, and so they willingly give themselves
to these organizations or religions.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
I'm gonna say that, I'm not gonna say what I
want to say.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
And they give themselves to these things, and I kind
of look at I kind of look at it think
and I go, well, you're thirty now, so you have
thirty years of life experience to tell you maybe this
is not what it is portraying to be. But that's

(15:40):
that's just me, and that's a totally different tangent. Every
time I started talking about religion, I immediately get into
Scientology and Mormons.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
I'm just like, everyone needs to know, everyone has to know.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
It is fascinating. It is so intriguing to get into
the thick of that and learn about it, especially if
you weren't necessarily raised in the faith. To see the
traditions and the rituals and the things that go along
with it. The expectations on their members fascinating wo and
to think that one oh, go.

Speaker 2 (16:13):
Oh have you do you know who Lea Remedy is. Yeah,
he's in the king of Queen her Dearly.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
She was a huge member of Scientology and she's no
longer with the church anymore, and so she had this
show and it just it blew my mind.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
What they are.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Allowed to do, what they're allowed to get away with,
who they're paying in California, the amount of money they
donate to the LAPD, how many Shelley Muscavige is the
wife of the head of the Church of Scientology. She's
been missing for probably sixteen years now at this point,
and no one's looking for her. I mean, it's so gaggy,

(16:51):
it's so gaggy it makes you it really every year,
and I know this is crazy. Every year I post
on my social social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, I post everywhere,
and I go, where's shelling and scabage?

Speaker 2 (17:04):
And like clockwork, there are like.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
Nineteen Scientologists members who gets under my posts and they go.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Don't you ask about her? Don't worry about my religion.
Mind your da, da da. I'm like fair game, fair game,
they're fair gaming me. But that's neither here nor there. Sorry,
I get so invested when I think about like religion.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Like also, I love the fact that this one has
been missing for over a decade, nearly two and their
first response is mind your p's and q's about my religion,
not there is a woman that has been missing for
nearly twenty years. Those are two very different things, very different.

(17:45):
The missing wife of the founder of your organization has
been missing. That is not a religious topic. That is
a missing person.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
And the crazy part, because I know, I know some
scientologist somewhere is going to see this, and they're gonna
try discredit everything we're saying. Okay, Seale Muskavege is the
wife of the current head of the church. Their founder died,
and Ronald Hubbard. He's supposed to come back. I'm sorry,
no quotations. He's supposed to come back and inherit this body.

(18:17):
That's why they buy all these mansions around the world
and leave them empty so that he could come back
and live in all these houses.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
But yeah, she has been missing for quite some time.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
And actually the LAPD sorry, okay, this will be the
last part I'll talk about it.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Come on, tell me.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
The LAPD told Leah Remedy. She went in and was like, hey,
I need to know this my best friend.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Where is she?

Speaker 3 (18:40):
When you do a welfare check on someone, they're supposed
to provide evidence, and they're supposed to say, like, here
she is, here's a video of her, or this where
you can reach her, this where you can find her,
so forth and so on. They told her she's fine,
she's okay, stop asking.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Hum.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Interesting, it smells a little.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Musty up in here.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
And when you look at who is the highest who
is the Church of Scientologist? Who do they donate to
the most Los Angeles police departments.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah, yeah, I have other thoughts on law enforcement as well.
Whom gonna keep those stuff well? And two it's so
funny too. Scientology has such enormous names and such influence
connected to it, both in media influenced, like just political
as well as monetary, Like there's a ton of funding

(19:37):
and if you've got enough money, as we have all
seen so clearly in the last one hundred and however
many days, if you have enough money, you can do
anything in the world that you want with very very
little consequence. And so people like I know, John Travolta
was involved in along for a long time. I want
to say that, Tom Cruise and then now one of
the largest names I know because I just finished the

(19:58):
series for this season, and Elizabeth Moss with Handmaid's Tale, Yes,
also a big name in the church, in the organization.
I'm sorry, I want to make sure I refer to
that correctly.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
I was like, okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
The Church of Scientology, and they treat their celebrities like
they have an entire celebrity base. Oh yeah, if you're
a celebrity, you don't go into the normal church. You
don't do these things like normal people. You literally come
into this area and they worship the ground you walk on.
And what's also scary is that you can't have people
around you who are not scientologists.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
So your manager, whomever, whomever is doing anything.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
For you, who's high prolific, it's someone from the church
to keep tabs on you, or so they say, to
keep you around those that are holy.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
That's what they say. And what others are saying is
that so they can keep tabs on you.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
But you know, you know, well, and that's just the thing.
Like if I was involved in something similar, I'm sure
that I would want to protect my investment as well.
I'm just not playing devil's advocate. I'm just trying to
find an explanation for why something like that would be
built in such a manner. I'm like, well, yeah, because
if you're around people who are perhaps exposed to a
lot of different kinds of people and from different faiths,

(21:12):
it may be difficult to hold on to that kind
of idea. Yeah, of course, just.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Maybe, like Remeny said, like she was only given a
fifth grade education and after that everything was this is
what scientology says, This is what scientology believes and full
one eighty because I'm an author too. The founder of
scientology was a science fiction writer, and he created this
entire religion based on his based on I mean, I

(21:38):
don't know what he based it on, but it's a story.
He essentially wrote a story and said, this is the religion.
Everybody's going to get their own planet after they die.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Is that dianetics? Is that right?

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Dianetics? Yeah, that's one of them.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, yeah, Because I remember that, I had a director
whenever I was living in Birmingham, Alabama, and his name
was Ron Hubbard. And so whenever I put not el Ra,
just Ron, and so whenever I put that on my resume,
and I'd go into an audition in New York and
they'd be like, is this I was like, no, that
is not No, that is not him. That those are

(22:11):
not too. Those are two very very different people, because
I don't I don't know anything about the process other
than what you and I have been talking about. You
hear things, but I haven't done any kind of deep dive.
I'm just like, Okay, I knew enough to be like,
not the same person, right, not saying good or bad,
I'm just saying that's just not the same guy. This
guy teaches theater in Birmingham, Alabama. I doubt that's the

(22:34):
author of dianetics. Thank you, And I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
If you had looked it up, el Ron would not
still be around. But that's okay again.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
I was like, okay, sure, yeah, speaking of theater, now,
I know that you have a very diverse background in
theater performance as well. Correct, Yes, wonderful.

Speaker 3 (22:55):
I actually started dancing at the age of fourteen. I
had written and essay, I saw the actually go back
to the beginning. I saw this movie go back to
even further. I wanted to be a lawyer my entire life.
I just knew that was what my that's what I
was going to do. I had, I was gonna say trained.
I had taught myself to focus on school, get good grades,

(23:18):
like stop being angry, and like really tried to become
a lawyer. And then I saw this movie called Center
Stage with Ethan Steeple, yeah, Julie Can and all.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Of those people, and I fell in love with it.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
And I was in the summer writing program because I
love writing, and I wrote this article about how I
wanted to be a choreographer. And I didn't know how
to start. I just want to make movement and do
the things that this man did in this movie. And
then my first ballet teacher and at whole love her dearly,
the pride of Richmond, Virginia. If you've ever gone to
Pine Camp of been a dancer in Richmond, you know,
and at Holt I owe her.

Speaker 2 (23:55):
My dance career.

Speaker 3 (23:56):
She reached out to my mom, well, she reached out
to my aunt, Dolorus McQuinn at the time, was in
charge of the program, and asked for my phone number.
And she called my mom and I was sitting in
the living room and they had this fool conversation. I
had no idea what was going on. My mom hangs up.
She goes, you're going You're going to dance class tonight.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
And I was like, huh.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
And so my mom was like, this woman just called.
She said, they want to offer your scholarship. They just
want to see you dance. I went, I was a
nervous wreck, a nervous wreck. These kids were in there dancing.
I mean, like before I knew what it was called.
I mean, I was like, they're flipping on their head,
they're jumping. I don't know how to do this. I
am frustrated. I'm getting angry. I was like, I don't
know how to do this.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
This is crazy. That was ballet class.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
So we started with ballet class on this whole and
then we went to Manor with Rodney Rodney Williams, who
I absolutely adore. He was another one of my favorite
teachers and like a fish to water, and I said,
I'm never giving this up. I'm never giving it up.
After that day, that was on a Wednesday, and she
was like, your scholarship starts today. And so I went
back Thursday and I stayed for full year. In that summer,

(25:01):
she introduced me to the teachers at the Richmond Ballet
and then I joined the School of Richmond Ballet. I
had my own ups and downs with the program, and
then Malcolm Byrne, who was at that who was the
artistic director at that time, artistic associate at that time
ballet master, suggested that I go to Virginia School of
the Arts and then from there it just it just

(25:22):
kept going. And then one of my favorite moments in
my entire life is that my freshman year of college,
I got to go to un CSA University of North
Carolina School of the Arts on a full scholarship, and
my dean of.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
Dance was Ethan Steeple, amazing from center stage it really and.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
I told him, I told him my story and he
really kind of took me under his wing and was like,
you know, let's get you to where you need to be,
and let's push you to how you want to be
pushed if this is what you want to do and
you want to be a choreographer. Him and Brenda, who
was the dean of contemporary, really both took me under
their wings and were like, we can do this with

(26:01):
you and for you. I wish I had somebody at
home who was going to be like, no, you need
to listen to them. But I was a little pig
headed back then.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
So find me anyone in a university setting who doesn't
think they already know everything there is to know. Yeah,
that that's just part of growing up. You've got to
learn what you do know and what you don't and
leave it to someone else to fill the void, for sure.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
And then after that, I just, you know, started working.
I just started working and I just got into it
and I stayed with it. I did companies, I did background,
I did movies, I did musical theater, which I realized
was quickly was my favorite. Like I love the world
that musical theaters are set in. Also ballets, a full
length ballet has my heart, to the end of the

(26:46):
to the end of days. It has my heart. But musicals,
there's something about musicals that are just like I'm in
this world now, like I'm in this world. I'm a
part of this world. I have my own character. I'm
living this life on stage. I'm singing, I'm dancing the lights.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
Ah ah. I love it. I love it. I love
everything about it.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Agree, Oh my god, it's magic. It's literally I'm going
to leave this guy in the dressing room. Whenever I
walk out of here, I'm going to be this other
person who has a whole other set of values. It's
a different way of dressing, a different gait of walk,
it's the whole thing is completely totally different. We may
have like what you mentioned earlier, that X, but the

(27:24):
rest of the alphabet is utterly different. We have one
point of intersection and the rest of it is something
that we get to create together, is a whole other entity,
and it's beautiful.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
I agree so much. And back when I was performing consistently.
I didn't understand, you know. I would tell people all
the time, like I'm a dancer. I love instant gratification,
like that is my thing. Like I perform, you applaud,
I love it, I eat it up, I come back,
I do it again.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
What I didn't discover is like, growing up, I had
seasonal depression, and so like, now that I'm older and
I understand what depression is, I'm like, wow, performing really
saved my life, like being able to step away from
my feelings that I didn't know how to discuss or
didn't know how to address, or sometimes did not want
to feel at all, and just being like this character

(28:11):
feels good or a prime example, I was going through
something really bad and a really bad part of my
life when I was doing the musical in the Heights
and Alabanza, the song that they sing fabuela. Every time
we would singing that song, I would fully cry, and
to me, I was like, oh, I'm acting. I'm in
the moment, I'm feeling it.

Speaker 2 (28:30):
Da da da da da, And now.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
That I'm older, I'm like, no, babes, you were in
a therapy moment. You were in a therapy session. Every
time that song came on and you were singing and
you were getting those feelings out, you were Yes, you
were acting, but you were also in therapy at that time,
like that song was your therapy.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Yes, truly, It's amazing to me the kind of things
that are just I would don't want to say commonplace,
because I don't think being on stage is ever anything
common in the least, but having those moments, whenever you
think you were just so connected to the material that
no what it is you are, it's helping you work
through something that was severely traumatic, so deeply buried you

(29:11):
didn't even know it was there until it started bubbling
up out of you in this moment. Thank the writer,
Thank the director, Thank everyone for the opportunity, because you're
going to walk away from this a better healed individual
because you got to live through that as this person.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yes, and I speaking of think the writers, think the director,
think all of.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
That, Bear the pop opera, that musical.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
Oh, thank them, thank their gay stars, thank all of
that from making that musical, because whoa I would still.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Be taking out the straight man if I had not
seen that musical.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
I had an original CD copy of that first reading
because I taught at stage Door manor for one summer,
and while we were there that summer a million moons ago,
they gave everyone a copy of the show CD.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
I also worked at stage Door man really yes, hey hey,
stage Door, Hey hey Barb, yes Door.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Stage Door is my home away from home. I love
it so much. And actually Bear.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
I saw Bear for the first time or heard about
it for the first time when we were casting for
it at stage Door, and that made me go, look
at your I think it was the original off Broadway
cast or the workshop cast, one of the two, and
I went to go see it and I was just
like this, absolutely love it. Oh, I love stage Door. Heley, Maggie, Hey.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
Guys, shout out to everybody, anybody. Yeah, one summer it
was it was. It was a lot of work if
you were working as a counselor, and I was a
counselor in a stage manager, it was a lot of work.
And we we we had, like you were talking about earlier,
we had some differences, and so that was my first
and last summer. But wow, the things they do they

(31:01):
make Wow.

Speaker 3 (31:03):
Yes, absolutely, I gave three or four summers to Stage Door.

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Absolutely loved it.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
I went my first summer as a counselor assistant choreographer
fell in love my very next summer. They were like, choreographer,
you got to be a choreographer, and so I did it,
and then I just kept coming back. I was just like,
this place is so magical, not even for me specifically,
not for the art side of it, because you know,
and I was an adult at that time, so I

(31:30):
had seen that, but Stage Door had created this place
that was so magical for the kids that when you
stepped out of your as you know, when you stepped
out of your limousine, you stepped out of your car,
you stepped out of your whomever was dropping you off,
your nanny, your mom, your dad, their assistant. Because you know,

(31:51):
the top elite for that program, you can be whoever
you want to be. I saw kids who who who
were consistently, you could tell, consistently chased, hounded by paparazzi,
who became children, yes instantly, or children who had not
seen their parents for a year because they go to

(32:11):
boarding school and then they go immediately to Stage Door
and they immediately go back to boarding school, literally cry
because they get to see their counselor, Like I missed
you so bad.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
I missed you.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Yes, that moment made me feel I mean, this place
was so magical. It was so magical. I tried to
send every student I come in contact with now to
stage door because I'm just like, you need to experience
a place where you can be a child.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
And that's it. Your only responsibility is to be a child.
That is it.

Speaker 3 (32:40):
The adults are there to be adults, and they're there
to make sure you are able to be a child.
Anything that's happening at home, give us your phone, you
don't have to deal with it. Deal with it after
these three weeks, you know. And they do an amazing
job with that. I oh my first summer there.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
I was just like, these little kids get all the
little gabies, they get to be gay.

Speaker 1 (32:59):
I love that it's just being themselves because I never forget.
For me, I love the art. The art was amazing.
We did Children of Eden. That was one of the
shows that we got to work on, and it was
the first performance. Was the first musical ever done in
the garden. They had never done a musical in the
garden before. We were supposed to do it in another
performance space, but for whatever reason, we could not do
it there there was some kind of conflict or problem

(33:21):
or like I think the rain or the weather or
something made it so that you could not do children
to be near. So we did it in the garden.
It was glorious. It was so good, and I was
so proud. That was great. The art was incredible. The
kids were the magic because I remember I was counselor
as well, meaning that whenever some little you know, some
little person came to me and they were worried that

(33:42):
God wouldn't love them anymore because they thought that some
little person with the same sex organs they found attractive
or loving or whatever. And we had these very real
conversations I remember sitting at the top of the stairs,
of course, which were encouraged. That's part of the reason
we were there. Make them feel loved included specially, this
is so important. Yes, it's so important that these children,

(34:04):
especially if they come from entertainment families or whatever, that
they continue to hone their skills so they can be
amazing and successes at the family business. Cool. Even more so,
even so much more important was making sure that these
people fell safe and that they didn't feel as though
there was some kind of punishment or problem with who
they were fundamentally, absolutely, and it was beautiful and whenever

(34:30):
we finished sessions, I'll never forget this as long as
I live. I was wearing this old Ratty Aerosmith T
shirt and this kid, you go from like eight to eighteen,
like you know, it's like very young up to.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, and it's little boys all the way up to
eighteen year olds.

Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, little boys. And this one little boy. I didn't
take care of the little boys. I took care of
the older boys. They and he runs up to me
because his older brother was one of mine, and we
gotten pretty close too. He is bawling his little eyeballs
out just and snot's running down his face. I'm like, body,
what's going on? What is it?

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Is?

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Like, it's cool. So just think you've got the rest
of your summer ahead of you and you can come
back next year. It's fine, It's all gonna be good.
And he blew his nose on the tail of my
T shirt and I was just like that just happened, Yeah, okay,
And I there is something to be said out of

(35:27):
something that seems so strange about the comfort and safety
that you offer a young person that they feel safe, okay,
accepted to take the help you offer in perhaps not
the way you intended, but they did and it was amazing.
And it took me a second to really get that

(35:48):
because at first I'm like, wow, snot on my shirt awesome,
And then you start to think about it, You're like, no, no, no,
this is okay. You know, I've got tearstains on the
belly and I've got snot on the tail. I tied
it up. At the end. We just kept on about
our lives. It's amazing the kind of friendships and the
kind of bonds you can form, not just between staff
and children, but also between the children, and the kind

(36:10):
of magic that is in and of itself was brilliant.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
I learned so much from other counselors my first year
who had worked there before on how to and I
know this sounds weird, how to facilitate other kids talking
to each other.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
I don't often see children of different classes come together
because of where I'm from. I see kids of the
same class all the time, or you know, in the
dance studio, we're all dancers, but you know these kids,
some of these kids are like children of whom you
know this paylisters, yes, listeners, and you know the first thing,

(36:46):
you know, that's not the first thing they want to
be reminded of. And so you know, you tell the
other kid. You try to encourage the other kids like, hey,
you know this is X, Y and Z not such
and such as daughter. Yes, like they're their own individual person.
And I that.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
When we were taught that at Stage Door. I just
think that's.

Speaker 3 (37:08):
That made me me personally, That made me feel like
a whole person, like I'm not I'm not the son
of Wanda, Like I'm not Wanda's son, like yes i am,
but I'm Deontae like Deonta is a full person, like
I my relationship to this person should not influence whether
or not you want to be near me or in

(37:29):
my space. And that, yes, it's common sense, but seeing
it in action with children, even adults, like you know,
the counselors, you know, we see people you know, please.

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Forgive me stage door, please let me come back.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
But you know, I saw Hugh Jackman one year and
I almost ran up to him, like super close to
running up to him and being like whoa, like hey,
like I mean hi, And then you have to remember,
well he's not Hugh Jackman, he's such and such.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
D Yes, because she's she's the student, she's.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
The star, She's the star here on this property. She
is the star, and he's the lucky one because he
is her father. Absolutely, and how cool is it that
your dad is here because you are the star.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
And I love everything about that program. Yes, I consistently
try to find ways to get back and literally regular
normal work life. It's always like.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
You can't take off of the summer because that's not
how this works. So but I understand, but I want
to go back so bad. I love it.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
If I could, I tell everybody about it every time
I get to speak. So this is a coincidence that
I didn't bring it up first.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
They no coincidencesciences the whole world, not nowhere, not never. Okay,
It's so funny whenever I text people like okay that
for whatever reason, that idea comes up in my mind
and in conversation with me a lot, so much so
that whenever I start typing it, it literally auto populates. Ain't,

(38:57):
no such thing is coincidence? Literally, just like are it
just predictive texts? Just go ahead and fill it out,
Go for it.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
Because it's your your slogan, your motto if.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
You honestly Yeah, well, because it's one of those things too.
A friend of mine we have an adventure blog together.
We haven't gone on a trip in a while, but
we take these enormous epic adventures all over the world,
and he's like, what are the odds? And I'm like, well,
full probably pretty good because it just keeps happening, and
you keep asking that question. So I'm thinking, what like
one in three and.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
We're about thirty.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
It's like, yeah, absolutely, it's just it's it's hilarious to
me because people continue to get surprised by the things
that were meant to happen. Not that I'm a fatalist,
but it's just like, these are the kinds of intersections
in our humanity that are here for connection, to strengthen
what we were talking about earlier, because there is a
power in that connection. There is a purity and a

(39:54):
truth that is very difficult to fool or trick. When
we come together, that ship sared knowledge, that shared experience
is very hard to manipulate, which is why so many
try so hard to keep us apart.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah, speaking of shared experience is something I wanted to
make sure that I got to share it with you,
especially since I think we probably share very similar ideas
as far as treating people correctly in administrations and politics
and things like that. The day that they told us
that they were no longer going to celebrate Juneteenth in
the United States of America, not putting it on the

(40:31):
legal calendar, I was at my favorite restaurant here in
my new hometown of Nimac, the Netherlands, and I got
on the interwebs. I got on her interwebs and bought
a ticket to her concert in Paris. She is going
to be performing on June teenth in Paris, and I

(40:51):
bought two tickets to go see the Cowboy carter or concert.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
You deserve all the things, I know the time. You
deserve all things. First of all, I can't wait.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Number one, she loves it.

Speaker 2 (41:04):
She's gonna show off better My goodness, great show. You're
gonna have a great show. I know that.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
I would not believe how cheap the ticket was compared
to what you try to buy one for in the
United States. Now, granted, ticket Master still got their pound
of flesh from me. May they absolutely rotten the deepest, darkest,
hottest pit of hell.

Speaker 2 (41:21):
I still don't understand how this is happening.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
It, buddy, we could stick that phrase on so many things.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Correct, But back to missus Giselle. Yeah, I have not
decided which show I'm going to go to yet. There
are two, well I have. That is a lie.

Speaker 2 (41:41):
I know which shows I am going to.

Speaker 3 (41:45):
Okay, my question is which show to take my best
friend to. My best friend's birthday is on Juneteenth, so right,
I know, and so I really want to take him
to the DC show. Because we were talking when we
were in the car. He was like, oh, I really
want to go, Like, you know, I've never been to
a concert, and so I was just like, I want
to take him. So now I'm trying to like trying

(42:06):
to figure out how to facilitate to get him a
ticket without him knowing, get him to DC, and then
get him into the show. The moment we started driving
towards DC on the same day the Beyonce concert, He's
going to know I cannot There's no way I'm going
to be in DC and not see Beyonce. He's going
to know we're going. But I do my second show,
I'm thinking about going to Houston, and I was talking

(42:27):
to Carry before this and I was like, you know,
I could possibly do a third show. I love Paris.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
I love Paris. I don't like to smell, but I love.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
Yeah. Well, okay, well then allow me to help you
with this. I have two tickets and I have not
invited anyone else. So oh that and cleared again, no coincidences.
Should you care to get yourself to Saint Denis, I
have a ticket waiting for you. So all you have

(42:59):
to do is show up and show out because the
bells done. That was easy. No, I would not. I
am as a thank you, as a thank you for
coming on to Radical joy as as something one of
those things. Again, no coincidences. I did not buy one ticket.

(43:20):
I bought two and had no idea none at all,
who I would take to something like this. I have
just a request or two from one. You got to dress, okay.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Don't worry about it.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Fantastic delicious number two. You got to get yourself there otherwise,
game on free rain.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Absolutely yes, Renee the Horse, I'm on it.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
I will be there with bells on, probably whistles and
probably spurs, yes, soles.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Great and caps however you want to show up to
show out. I support it, I'm here for it, and
you have a ticket waiting for you in Paris.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Thank you my ticket.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
I'm probably gonna get it next Thursday. Send you all
that information of like, hey, I'm there, I am there,
I am in Paris.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
I'm there.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah, here's the thing. We'll talk about it with like
the logistics and whatever in a bit, because I still
have the ticket, because they don't give the ticket until
you tell day off, like literally.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Then what I discovered is that because I brought four
tickets last year for me, the gentleman I was speaking
to at the time and his two friends, when you
when you purchased the ticket, even if you transferred to
the other person, they're going to ask to see the
original ticket holder is ID.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yep. And so I was not going.

Speaker 3 (44:40):
I was not traveling with them because we had to stoped
communicating and so you know, he was like, can you
send me your ID so I can get into the venue.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
I was like, that.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
Seems so sketch, maybe, but I'll.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
Be there, but yeah, like you have to like wait
for the person. And I didn't know that. Maybe that's
maybe that's a DC thing or somehow.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
I don't think so, because they made it very difficult
to do that here as well. You don't even get
the ticket that not even a digital until the day
of the evount.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
I think people were like stealing tickets from the ticket
masters if I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Or scalping the ever living but Jesus out of them,
because I'm sure it's going to be a very expensive situation.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Selling the same ones over and over again. Ridiculous.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
How dare you do that to Beyonce on Beyonce's Internet
and Beyonce's time in the Hour of Beyonce in the
year Beyonce.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
On Thetheless, and that was the thing. I was just like,
that's it. This is my protest purchase. I'm like, yes,
I'm buying this ticket and that's what's happening. Great, super
So if you want to come see her in Sandiny,
it's going to be on juneteenth, twenty twenty five. Yeah done.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
I'm screaming, thank you, good, wonderful. Her middle name is Beyonce.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Oh me lea Beyonce, Beyonce.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Oh my god, you want to be on camera? Okay,
that's okay.

Speaker 1 (45:57):
Well, she's seen all of the hollering in the clap
and she probably I don't know what's going on, but
I'm going to stay off right now.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
Are you upset with me? What's going on? I don't know?
No you okay, Okay, my mom, thank you. That just
made my week. It definitely just me wonderful. I only
have to get to one ticket to d.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
That's it. And I know they're not cheap either, is
a flight to Paris. Like, I know that they're not
cheap to get from Richmond to Paris. But it's just
one of those things like great, super great, we got
we got points, we got probably yeah, it's it's.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
And I know I know that if I go directly
from Richmond, I only have to make one stopover in.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Iceland and then I'll be writing in Paris. Great perfect, yes, yes,
but exactly that's the exact stop.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
Perfect. I love it.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
We're done, period.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
For For any of my future guests, please understand this
is not typical.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Do not try to come on when the concert happening.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
When anybody getting the wrong ideas like, oh shoot, this
is not payment of any kind. This is all completely voluntary.
It's just I did. I bought two tickets and I
had no idea who else I was gonna bring with me,
because also, you're gonna have to be the guy that
sings like I honestly don't know a whole lot of
the songs.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
From the album from the top of the lungs.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
Delicious, wonderful. Then what I'm gonna do is literally just
glom onto your awesome and try to just kind of
sort of keep up.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
Absolutely, absolutely, we're gonna make it, happend, We're gonna make
a how you dose the cowboy hat, and my voice
will project far enough that people think there are ten
people singing.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Brilliant because I do.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
I have.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
I have the costume, costume, I have one hundred percent.
I just still have a hat because this hair is
way too good to put on her hat.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
So you're right, I get that.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
Yeah, So are you going what's your color scheme? So
that I know not to like bite off your color scheme?

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Buddy, let me tell you something. You bite anything I got,
you live, you wear whatever you want. I all I
want to do is bask in the glow of the awesome,
standing next to you at the concert, just watching you live. Fully,
I'm like, yes, this is what this was supposed to
be again. No coincidences. Boom done.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Love it, love everything about it.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
Thank you, of course, Deontay. Thank you for joining us
on Radical Joy today. This has been such a pleasure you.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
Thank you for having me. I feel my cheeks hurts
so bad. I'm good. I'm definitely about to go to
the gym and have a great day.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
I love setting myself up for wonderful days, and this
has really set me up and I cannot wait for
other people to feel this radical joy that I feel.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Seriously good for all of my listeners out there, they're listening,
thank you so much for joining us today. We're gonna
have all the information about where you can catch Deontay,
whether it's on a social media, whether it's purchasing his book,
and all those that follow to make sure that we
have the entire collection. Look for those in the show notes.
We are so thankful that you came to be with

(48:47):
us today. Deontay, thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Thank you so much for having me. James, if this.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Is your first episode of Radical Joy, thank you so
much for joining us. What a wonderful episode to start
your Radical Joy journey. This is not your first episode,
I'd like to say welcome back. Thank you so much
for spending this time with us every week, just so
that we can all feel a little bit elevated whenever
perhaps things try to get us down. If you're the
kind of person who likes to leave a review, please

(49:13):
leave us five stars on whichever platform where you're listening,
Take a screenshot, send it in to us so we
can reward you for your loyalty and your kindness with
some swag. We've got a brand new look for season
three and we would love to send you probably a
sticker so as you can put it on a water bottle,
a laptop, a journal, wherever you like to stick a sticker,
and that way you can get the word out about
Radical Joy, because I promise you word of mouth is

(49:35):
the most effective way we have of reaching more people
and hopefully infecting them with the same kind of happiness
we try to give others. As always, thank you so
much for tuning in with us here at Radical Joy
and CELW Studios, and please never forget exactly how much
we love y'all. Thank you for taking time to share

(49:58):
a moment of joy and hope me. We're so grateful
you're here. If this is your first time, take a
moment to check out our archive. See if there's something
else in there that fires you up, rekindles the joy
in you. Hey, spread the word. If you got something
out of being with us today, we welcome your thoughts
and suggestions.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Now.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
I rarely run out of things to talk about, but
if there's something I haven't covered that's on your mind
or heart, I want to hear from you. To learn
more about me and CLW Studios, follow the links in
the show notes. Hey, don't forget. When you leave Radical
Joy a review, be sure to send us a screenshot.
We'll send you some kick ass swag to show our gratitude.
I am not a therapist or a medical professional. If

(50:34):
you're experiencing a mental health emergency, please call nine to
eight eight to reach the National Crisis Lifeline. This content
and other content produced by CLAU Studios and affiliated partners
is not therapy, and nothing in this content indicates a
therapeutic relationship. Any opinions of guests on this podcast are
their own and do not represent the opinions of James
or CLW Studios. Please consult with your therapist or seek

(50:57):
what in your area. If you're experiencing mental health symtom.
Everything in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes.
Only have a great one and we will see you
next week for another dose of radical joy love. Y'all,

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