April 15, 2024 • 56 mins
T TIME with Theresa - Season 4, Episode 25 "It’s All Greek To Me!'. Hosted by Theresa Farrell. Tonight's guest is Actor, Writer, Producer and Comedian Ellen Karis. T TIME with Theresa is aired live on Strong Island Television from Paradise Studios NY - www.strongisland.com
#Ttime #TalkShow #TV #Movies #Entertainment #Celebrities #Actors #StrongIslandTV #StrongIsland #LongIsland #Nassau #Suffolk #Brooklyn #Queens #NewYork
#Ttime #TalkShow #TV #Movies #Entertainment #Celebrities #Actors #StrongIslandTV #StrongIsland #LongIsland #Nassau #Suffolk #Brooklyn #Queens #NewYork
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Good evening, and welcome to teeTime. Hey everybody, welcome to tea
(01:26):
Time. It is Monday night.It's April fifteenth, Tax Day. I'm
so glad you're joining me tonight.I'm gonna you know, I'm not gonna
talk about my weekend I normally do. I'm gonna talk about how I wasn't
here last week. And I hopeyou all watch my repeat show with Al
Martin. May he rest in peace, wonderful, wonderful man who started out
as a comic and the owner ofthe Broadway comedy club. Instead, I'm
(01:48):
gonna talk about Florida because that's whereI went to go visit my parents.
But before we put up any picks, I just want to say murdered by
the Mob. There's Ralph Brocco andI and Veto And if you have nothing
to do, go to murder bythemob dot com and just look up shows.
Come see one. It's like goingto an Italian wedding. Someone gets
(02:09):
whacked. You gotta figure it out. You eat, you sing, you
dance, you drink a lot offun. All right, So let me
get to Florida. Florida, Iwent to go see my parents. There's
my mom. Look at mom.Jean Kennis. Tracy's gonna be eighty six
years old next month on May fourth, and Dad is eighty nine. Now.
He gets up every morning at fivethirty to walk and mom rides her
(02:32):
tricycle. I love it. Andthat next pick we've got there, Please,
they're gonna be married sixty seven yearsand they can't keep their hands off
of each other. I love them, so, thank you so much for
those picks. I had a blastseeing them. I needed a week in
(02:53):
Florida. And what do you doin Florida? Well, we played bingo,
we went to karaoke, we wentshopping, and of course we went
out to dinner. So I justhad a blast with my parents. And
they'll probably be back sometime in June. So that's that, all right.
I'm very excited because not his onlytax day. But I have a friend
(03:15):
of mine here who I met awhile ago and been trying to coordinate her
coming on my show. She's anactor, she's a writer, she's a
producer, she's a comedian, she'san author. This woman has done it
all. Ellen Harris is here.Hi Ellen, Hi, I'm good.
How are you. I'm excited,you're here. I'm me too. You
(03:36):
know, we met actually years agobefore we did Dangerfields together. You did
a show for John Lorochia. Yes, I was just about to say that,
Yeah, John Rochia, who doeslay have to save his lives?
And it was for rescuing families.Yeah, that's what we actually first met
met met. But the last showwe actually did together was at Danger Feels,
(04:00):
right before the pandemic, Like yeah, like the weekend before the Monday
that I hit the fan and did. We had a great time that night
doing a show for Jeff Criner.Shout out to Jeff. And but I
want everyone to get to know youbecause you've been in this business a long
time. First of all, Yes, what the gun is? Gala?
(04:24):
Very nice, I'm impressed. Yes, I went to high school with Zoe.
Uh huh. Yeah, so youknow I learned a little bit.
Yes, I can't say the restbecause most of it's bad and dirty,
you know. Yeah, that's whatGreeks do. We teach you. We
don't teach you like you know,happiness and love. We we we go
right to the curse words. Sobasically, you grew up in Manhattan,
(04:47):
yes, your whole life. Yeah, and pretty much now left. Yeah,
pretty much. I'm on the island. I'm stuck on that island like
Gilligans, except hellot dirtier. Uhyeah, yeah. I mean I went
to high school. I went toschool in the suburbs, but then you
know, and then I went tocollege and then I was like okay,
and then I just came back.I mean I graduated and the next month
(05:10):
I had an accounting job. Yeahyou you you you you have a uh
accounting degree as an accounting of anm b A and finance. Hello heavy
small woman. She's good with numberyes, and it's just so ironic and
you like on tax I know,I totally totally. I mean I just
(05:33):
mentioned it like right before we goton there, and I just want people
to know because I still have alittle accounting empathy in my heart. Don't
I don't think that you still havetime to go to your accountant tonight to
ask him to finish. But didyou just go on extension then? Yeah?
You know, you know, don'tdon't. Yeah, it's all right,
(05:56):
I mean, it's that's what it'sthere for. I don't want to
talk about that. When was theaudience when you were in school high school?
I mean college. You kind oflike had an idea of the direction
you wanted to go. But whenyou in school, were you into the
arts in the theater and performing.I didn't do any of that. You
didn't nothing. So I used tocome home and watch soap operas. But
(06:20):
I loved TV. I watched alot of TV from the time I was
little. That was the babysitter.Right now it would be like almost criminals,
rich your kid invite. Well nowit's videos, but yeah, sort
of, I guess the same thing. So I loved sitcoms. I just
watch I Love Lucy with my greatmy great grandmother, and you know all
(06:41):
the sitcoms, the rerun the oldsitcoms and you know the newer ones,
the you know that we're on.And so I really wanted to be on
a sitcom. That was my dream. And anyway, but there's nothing to
do with like, you know,I didn't. I don't have a Hollywood
family or nobody's in the arts.In my family. We have no talent
(07:02):
on both sides, nothing horrific.Nobody can sing, nobody the dancing is
awful. They're really not good people, good cooks, other skill sets,
but not not performing arts. Soanyway, went to college. I actually
college. I knew I wanted tobe an account and I wanted to go
(07:24):
into business. I was. Iwas obviously very good at math, that
was my strong suit, and I'mvery good in actually advanced algebra. But
nobody still to this day has askedme to calculate a quadratic a cake equation
yet. So anyway, and thenI went to work, like right out
of college, got a job anda large counting firm. I was an
(07:46):
auditor for a long time. Idid taxes, I did small business,
I did large business. I reallygot quite the foray. And then I
was like a lot of people thatI knew were going to Wall Street making
much more money. I was workinga bazillion hours. And so I went
and got my MBA, and thenI worked in an investment banking firm as
(08:07):
a derivatives analyst. I know again, I don't want to lose anybody.
So then I was going to takemy CFA, which is the Chartered Financial
Analyst exam, and I actually tookthe first part and I passed. And
I took the second part. Ididn't really study for it. I didn't
pass, and that was actually agreat thing that happened, because then I
was like, you know what,I don't want to do this anymore.
(08:30):
I've gone through a lot of school. I'm totally proud of it, and
to this day, I don't regretit. Obviously, nobody could take away
my background, my degree is myeducation. But I had to do something
fun. So just to get backto your question, because I grew up
in New York City, I actuallyit was really my aunt. My aunt
(08:50):
who's my godmother, who I'm veryclose with, love the art. She
was also a teacher, so she'dhave any kids of her own, but
we were like her kids. Andshe took me to my first play at
Lincoln Center when I was four yearsold. So I would say, I
that's when I really like loved itand was just in awe of live performance,
(09:11):
you know. And then over theyears went to see Broadway shows and
the ballet and you know, andall that kind of stuff. So I
was always around it and from youknow that, from from that perspective,
so fast forward, I'm like,you know what, I'm going to take
an acting class. I've never takenan acting class. I took an improv
class at the New School. Iloved it. It was fun. We
weren't talking about reports, we weren'ttalking about the balance sheet. It was
(09:35):
just so freeing to just be mysilly self. And then I was like,
okay, and then I took anotherclass and we started talking about this
earlier. You know, it tooka commercials, film, soaps. This
that in New York had just aplethora of classes that you can just go
to for six weeks, eight weeksif you like a teacher, you know,
(09:56):
maybe six months this. So II I studied with a few teachers,
but the one teacher that really changedmy life. One of them was
a woman by the name of PennyTempleton. So now I'm three years into
this, I'm going to her classand she would have us improv something from
our life at the time that whateverwas going on, just as a warm
(10:18):
up. So I would come inevery week and one of my sisters was
getting married, and it was alwayslike a drama. I remember my sister
going, you're going on vacation.We have this wedding to plan. I
go, we don't have a weddingto break, you have a wedding to
plan. I mean, I'm yourmaid of honor. But you have your
wedding book. So anyway, Iwould go through all this. And Penny
said to me, and I'll neverforget this and change my life completely.
(10:39):
She goes, I have two notesfor you. One is you should write
a play about your sister's wedding,Greek wedding. And I go before the
movie an hour ago. Who's gonnawant to see that? No one's going
to relate to that because I havevision. And the second thing she said
is I hope you talk about yourGreek family stand up And I said,
(11:01):
I don't do stand up, andshe said, and this is exactly what
she said, get some wow.And I remember that night as if it
was yesterday, and it wasn't.I was in the cab, I'm going
home. I'm sitting there and I'mlike sitcoms and I'm like stand up and
I'm like, well, maybe ifI become a stand up, I can
get a sitcom. Because all ofthe stand ups like Seinfeld, like Roseanne
(11:26):
and Brett Butler, by Ellen Ellen, they were all right and they all
got sitcoms. And that's that's great. That's what I'm gonna do. That's
how I'm gonna get my sitcom,did you I know, good thing?
We didn't know that that's not happening. So so then and that was it.
(11:46):
And then it just parlayed. SoI went to the comic strip yep.
I took a class with a guyby the name of Def Sweetler,
who is still there and looks exactlythe same. I don't know what times
got at home, okay, butand I did. I did a class
and you know, you do yourfirst show. And I thought it was
(12:07):
fun. I thought it was great. And then I liked it because I'm
a little bit of a control freakand I felt like I had more control
because these are my words. Imean, they are still my words.
But of course, now that I'mover twenty years into it, you know,
it's about entertaining the audience and writingmaterial that people are going to relate
(12:28):
to and all that other kind ofstuff. But anyway, so that's how
the stand up really started. Butit was not my original intent and it
wasn't even anything. I was no, not at all something. Yeah.
So but going back, I hadit inside me. You know, I
was always very animated. I liketo tell stories. I like to be
the center of attention. My familyin my family, though not necessarily with
(12:52):
strange right, and you know,with Greek were loud. So your first,
your very first time you acted,because like you said, you took
a lot of different glasses. Butthe first, the first gig you ever
landed was what, Oh, you'renot gonna believe this. It was some
independent film that I found in backstage. So I started to get backstage,
(13:15):
and when it came I had anactual paper back right right. I don't
think I had it. I don'tknow. I think I had had chat
at that point. I don't knowwhat. I can't even remember what I
submitted, but anyway, and thefilm was called The Accountant. Really,
yes, yes, isn't that wild? Wow? Is that wild? It
is? But it was me andabout a zillion other people in like some
(13:37):
church gym on fifty fourth Street.You know, that was the first,
first, first, first thing Ihad ever did. But I remembered I
felt so invigorated and it was likeit was just we were a crowd.
We were dancing. Oh, wehad a like like rush like to the
middle. I remember I was wearingsandals and I had gotten a really nice
pedicure and somebody kicked my oh,and I chipped my pedicure, and I
(14:01):
was very I was like and becausebecause I was completely I was completely convinced
that, you know, my sandalsand my pretty feet were gonna be So
I never saw its full form,but that was one of my first things
that I that I remember that everdid. And then I did a lot
of like the Student films and againthe Independence and then and then and then
(14:26):
later on I stood in for SusanLucci on all my trolls. I could
still see that, so very verynice, lady, very nice. I
did it twice and she's one ofus, like tiny and she and I
remember being there. And this waswhen AFTRA was separate from SAG correct,
(14:48):
and they made me join AFTRA,which was only it was was a fee
right and uh that was it.It wasn't like SAG with the waivers and
it's going to be a whatever itwas because it was television. Yeah,
well I remember. I didn't wantto do it. I was annoyed.
As matter of fact, the firsttime I was at all my children,
I didn't join. And when theycalled me the second time, the guy
(15:11):
said you have to join the Rose, I can't hire you. So I
sucked it. Up, I wentdown. I paid it what I eight
hundred bucks whatever it was at thattime, and that was it. Thank
god, because years later, whenSagging after a merge, I was grandfathered.
I didn't have an initiation fee,so that really worked out. But
I was very annoyed. Right Ibelonged back back in nineteen eighty two three,
(15:37):
I belonged to a National Academy ofAuts and Science and I won.
I don't know how this happened,I don't remember, but I won a
day on the set of All myChildren, and Susan Lucci was there that
day and they were blocking, soI got to see, you know,
what they do because I didn't know. It was my first time on set,
and I'm thinking so tiny, yeah, like they look so big right
(16:00):
on TV. And then you getthere and they're like I knew, yeah,
she's teeny tiny. But the firstsoap I worked on was Another World,
and that was in Brooklyn, sothat's what had happened. I worked
on that one. Then when Idid All My Children, the Union guy
was on the set. I gotaway with that one, but then when
(16:22):
it was the third time, theywere like no, yeah, oh no,
no, I'm sorry it was asthe world turns, as the world
churt. Yeah yeah, all right, well listen, we have to take
my first break. Don't go awaymore with Ellen. When we get back,
We'll be back after these messages.Don't go away? All right?
(16:53):
Is everybody having a good time tonightor lot? That's what I thought.
(17:17):
I don't want to call back downfrom that this time. Well, Hi
(17:51):
there, Teresa, It's John Yorkfrom General Hospital. I am just checking
in because apparently you have a greattalk show called Tea Time on Strong Island
TV. I want you to havecontinued great success and have a lot of
fun. It sounds like you're havinga lot of fun, and that's pretty
much the key to everything, isn'tit. So continued success. I'm proud
(18:12):
of you. Have a great day, Teresa. Bye. Hey, everybody,
welcome back to t TOM. Igotta give some shout outs to Ann
and Greg and Michael. John Massina'swatching, John Santo's watching, I'm sure
Bruno's watching. Thank you. Everyone. Please like the show, please share
it. I'm on every Monday night, Facebook and YouTube live and then it
(18:34):
goes to Roku TV, Amazon,Fire TV, Twitch TV, everywhere.
Podcasts can be heard and seeing everySaturday at ten am on Channel twenty for
people who live on Long Island andget Optimum. I'm so excited because my
friend Ellen is here. She's anactor, writer, producer, and comedian.
She's done acting, she's done standup, she's done it all.
And we met through stand up andwanted to talk to you about we got
(19:02):
into the acting thing and your firstgig and how you became sag because you
were a grandfather dang. A lotof people like you said you gotta get
waifers, so sometimes you get itTaft Hartley and it's yeah, it's a
it's a whole it's a whole easy, it's a whole process. But you've
back in two thousand and you didsomething Cold early edition. You played a
doctor back then, that was withKyle Chandler. I did, Yeah,
(19:26):
what it says? I m Dmay I don't know. I got.
I got some creds here that Iwanted to go through. You've played,
You've played in the Greek Gods ofComedy, which actually you wrote that was
comedy. Yeah that was and youwrote and you executive produced that. Yes,
yes, you tell me how thatcame to be. So again,
(19:48):
I just backtrack a second. Sowhen I decided to jump into the stand
up comedy pool at the Shallow End, uh, you know, doing standup
for a little while, and Iremember, I'll say his name. His
name is Eric Hanson. He wasa manager. He actually runs Broadway Comedy
Club. He does a lot ofdifferent things. But at the time I
(20:11):
was taking a writing class. Therewas a bunch of us and I remember
him saying to me, you know, he represented Mody, if you remember
Mody r MODI. She's like,you know, Mody does a lot of
you know, temples and synagogue.He's like, yeah, they're like a
Greek community that you can, youknow, perform at. And I was
like, well, yeah, Imean there's a community, but comedy I
(20:33):
don't know. And so, longstory short, I got in touch with
a woman that I had met overthe year. She was a pr person
blah blah, and she got meinto a couple of things and that really
started my foray into the Greek audience. So but in my stand up I
talked about being obviously growing up Greekand my parents and all that other kinds
(20:56):
of stuff. So that was natural. But then, you know, as
time went on, and I wasdoing those shows. I made it much
more specific for our people and andwhatnot. So that special was I think
in two thousand and seven, andI did it with a couple of other
guys and we recorded it at GothamComedy Clubs. Yeah, I have two
thousand and eight, but somewhere somewherearound there. Well, you grew up.
(21:18):
I grew up in a very strictItalian household. You grew up in
a very strict Greek. Oh yourhousehold? Yes? Were you? Were
you the oldest? Yeah, metoo. Yeah, the oldest girl does
not make it any easier. Idon't have any brothers, so it was
all girls, okay, but youwere the icebreaker. Oh totally for them.
Oh yeah, no, no questionabout it. Yeah, yeah,
(21:38):
totally. Oh you're welcome, Yeahexactly. But you did you You've done
many different party again. You've doneshorts, You've done TV series. You
did something did you did Finding whichwas a short way on New York?
Yeah, you played the director.That was a TV series that Yeah,
that was fun. Yeah yeah,yeah, you did to twenty fourteen.
(22:00):
You did Yellow Brick. I think, hell, it's a TV series.
You did Living in Exile. Youplayed Athena. Oh yeah that was Now.
I know you do speak Greek andyou have in your acting. You've
done some things because it's what you'rereal. You speaking Greek. Yes,
do you feel comfortable doing that?Yeah? I mean I can't be like
twenty five minutes of straight Greek.So my Greek's not bad, It's good.
(22:25):
I went to Greek school for eightyears, but you know, it's
like I took Spanish for seven yearsin school. You think I would be
fluid. You know, my greatgrandmother, my grandmother spoke. Now it's
funny. My Greek actually got betterbecause of doing Greek American comedy, and
also over the years, I've gottenvery involved with the church. I'm a
(22:48):
Sunday school teacher. I've got aton of Greek girlfriends. So it's funny.
My Greek is definitely much better thanit's as best as it's ever been.
So I'd really love to be alittle bit more structured and learned.
I could. The reading came backto me. That was the one thing,
like I hadn't really read anything ina long long time, and now
(23:11):
I can, I can, Ican read now. I know in Italian
we have a lot of different dialects. Is that the same with Greeks?
Oh yeah, well, I'd saythe biggest dialect difference is the Greeks in
Greece and then the Cypriot Greeks.So my mother's side is from Cyprus.
Okay, so that one that's definitelya different Uh much you can tell when
(23:34):
someone's Cypriot, Yeah, got it, got it. You also did The
Closer. You played a waitress.What exit again? Athena? So you
played a woman named Athena twice?Yes, my first meetup was a short.
Yeah you played Ala, Yeah yeah, Yeahsten damn bro you played a
teacher, actually played Helen as aTV series. Uh spiros euros I'm mis
(24:03):
saying it right. Yeah, thatactually never came to fruition, It didn't,
okay, but that was that wasyeah George, you know George.
Yes, I worked with him ononce a once a once a week for
Life, huh okay. And thenyou did A Thousand Miles you play Tilly
and that was with Betina Sky.Yes, yes, yes, you know,
(24:26):
I haven't thought about any of theseand like you're like, i'd like
if you do the man you kindof like, you know, you put
them away like, I get it. You know, it's kind of like
your favorite doll and you put iton the shelf for a while and then
you're like, I remember playing withthat. Yeah, yeah, something like
that. Yeah, I have.I've done a bunch of things that you
know, but you've you've done,You've done, You've done. You know.
You also have done The Irishman,The Punisher, Billions, Blacklist,
(24:52):
Sopranos. Yeah, sisters, andagain a recurring role which we have a
pick of you and your recurring roleas a waitress in the novelist Missus Maisel.
There there you are, and I'llgo go back to the other one.
There you are. Kill Hold thata second. There you are on
your waitress. I love period pieces, isn't it great? And then the
(25:14):
next one is you with with them? How great and cool was that series?
It really was, So I willI'll tell you a backstory to it.
So when I got called, Iwent to the fitting. So this
was for season two. I wasn'tin season one. And I remember in
the in the dressing room, Iput that little waitress uniform on and the
(25:40):
button right here was a little tight. It was tiny, I was And
I remember one of the wardrobe peoplegoing oh, this is a little tight
on her, and then the otherwardrobe person goes, well, then we
can get we'll get somebody else,and they go no, no, no,
I will not eat. I willnot whatever mine. They're like,
(26:00):
all right, I mean it buttoned, but it was a little tight.
So I fit into it. Iwoul fit into it, huh. And
it was. It was amazing.So I just worked in the deli.
I never got out of the deli. So I was on season two,
three, four five, same costume. The hair always wound up being different,
(26:22):
I will tell you. The onenot great thing was that period pieces
women have to cut their hair,so my hair is always pretty much on
the long side. Did you agreeto that? I did agree to it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, ofcourse you have to agree to it.
Well, I know a friend ofmine who went and pinned her own
hair up and they let her dothat. See, I don't know.
(26:44):
I didn't really think I had anoption. So I had for four years
horrible haircuts, really yeah, becauseI don't like my hair up to hear,
And for three seasons I had themdo it. And the last haircut
that I got from them was horrific, really they I mean they just went
(27:07):
and took shears and she just startedchopping away. So when they called me
the left for the last season,I said, I will do it,
but I'm going to my own personto cut my hair, which again I
don't even know that that was anoption. You have an option of a
wig. I don't understand. No, I know, I know may Rachel
obviously wore a wig. So anyway, her hair right, and it was
(27:30):
like blonde, like her hair wasnot what it is. So but to
get to the more positive stuff,it really was. I mean it was
a sitcom that was a sitcom andand it was fun and fun. It
was fun. The woman Amy Palladino, Amy Sherman Palladino, who wrote Gilmore
(27:51):
Girls and everything. She had beenon set and stuff. She's a real
bundle. You know, she's inthe back and she's you know, you
know, why why is this?Why is that? I mean, but
she knows what she's doing. Youknow, she grew up in the business.
I mean, amazing, amazing,So it was great. It was
it was it was the real deal. I was with real actors, Rachel
real real, yeah, real andAlex uh incredible. I did there was
(28:15):
a lot of scenes. I wasthere with them and it was so much
fun. Were able to hang outwith them at all? No, I
mean I had a little chit chatwith Rachel, but but you know,
everybody's in their zone, and Idon't you know, you don't really want
to unless you have I do wantto bother them unless you really have something
to say. Then there's nothing tosay, you know, so you just
(28:37):
respect their space. That was Thatwas great, Just a great series from
there, from there was there.I know you also did political Uh you
were political humorist. That's what youif you agree to that. And you
on Hannity, yes, like aroundthree times. You also on Say Anything
(29:00):
with Joy Behar. And you alsotook a daily show with John Stewart that
was a sketch. Well that wasa sketch sketchy day. Yeah, yeah,
that was, but that's still helloHello. Yeah, but that wasn't
like Hannity. I was like talking. I did Red Eye, were very
funny. I actually watched whatever.You know you had a fan. I'm
like, this is hysterical. It'sreally good because a lot of your comedy
(29:22):
is observational comedy. Yes, andI know that you like any comic.
We talk about what we know,our experiences, whether it's family or I
know you mentioned your husband. Ido too. There's a lot of you
know things that we pull from.Yes, but is there a topic that
you try to stay away from itall considering we have this woke h society
(29:45):
going on. Because I've talked aboutthis before on the show, I am
not launchy. That's just not myhumor. I don't really want to hear
it personally. It's never real reallyfunny ever very rarely. So I don't
that I just don't do because Idon't like it, and I always have.
(30:07):
I will tell you something that actuallyDF Sweetler told me and I carry
it with me to this day.I remember that first first comedy class.
He said to me, I wantyou to write clean because you can always
make clean dirty. You can't makedirty clean. And it stuck with me.
And then you said, of course, and you can work more if
you're you're clean comic and be onTV and all this other kind of stuff.
(30:30):
So that was always my mindset.And do I sho I don't.
I don't really shy away from anything. I mean, look, I'm not
there to piss anybody get you aggregateand all. So I don't say I
(30:52):
I don't really have anything I shyaway from. If you're going to do
political humor, I mean on thoseshows you know, when you're on I
had any you're going to talk politics, right, So, and I used
to do the show on Fox Businesscalled Bulls and Bears, which was at
four o'clock after the bell from NewYork Stock Exchange when you know, the
(31:14):
market clothes. But I that wasa little bit more with my business background.
But I would you know, I'dcrack a joke here and there and
stuff like that. But but itwas really my business background that kind of
got me on that. So butyou know, if you're going to do
politics, like I think Lewis Blackis a great example because he puts down
(31:36):
both sides. I think there isa lot there. Okay, but but
if it's one sided, as faras I'm concerned that it's not going to
work. Right. So it's thebalance. Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm
not talking about race. It's justwhat wouldn't work well for me, you
know, not that I have adesire to do that. I'm just saying,
like, so that's just something youknow, I'm not into I like
(32:02):
I do do marriage material, whetheryou're married or whether you're a couple.
You know, dating everybody relates tothat they've been in a relationship. I
do some stuff about kids and someyou know, getting older, and then
things that just you know, happenand that are new, and then you
know, you stick that in there. So I do admire comics that say
(32:25):
I'm working on a whole new hour. So I mean, I don't.
I don't bless, I know,I think that's amazing. I'm more like
I take something out, I putsomething in. I take that, you
know, and then ultimately right,it's a different saying. So but no,
I don't. But I'm not again, like I said, I'm not
looking to offend and or say aword where everybody's gonna be like like,
(32:49):
that's not But is it true?Is it true? During one of your
sets, you had mentioned that youworked for one of the accounting firms that
handles the Academy. Yes, yes, that is correct, yes, yes,
yes, yes, says I havea better shot at going to the
Oscars as an accountant than I doas an actress. So it's all work.
That is a great line. It'sit's a great line. How many
(33:12):
more years? Oh my god,it's a crazy so funny. This is
insane. It's a crazy industry.But I'm like, we chose an industry
we love, but it doesn't loveyou back. Really. It's sometimes very
abusive, it is, isn't it. It's like we we just yeah,
it's it's yeah, my comics arein therapy. I or indeed it.
(33:32):
I say that first of all,if you you have to want to do
this, I mean like, okay, let's say you start out, you're
curious, you go to open mics, you do some bringer shows, that's
all great and stuff, but Ithink you get to the five year mark
like that. That was for me, you know where I was like,
all right, yeah, either doingthis or I'm out because it's too hard.
(33:54):
It is, and I tell peoplethis all the time. Someone I
get off stage like, oh mygod, I know how you get up
there and this and that the stageisn't the hard part. It's the getting
the work. Yeah, that's thepart that takes so much. It's getting
buked, getting bucked and it's stilla very well we were talking how you
know you're doing this twenty as Istarted in the early nineties and how it's
(34:15):
still a mail it's still a maledominated industry, and there's a lot of
it's hard to get stage time,and it's you know, you got to
you know, you hustle your book, yourself. You're doing everything else else,
everything, you know, and youand you, and you drive three
hours to do twenty minutes and youget a couple of hundred dolls if you
(34:37):
like so, well, it's crazy. It is. It is still male
dominated. It is. It's betterthan it was. It is and I
always like to say this though,Honestly, if it weren't for male comics,
I wouldn't have a career. Somany men have hired yes, yes,
yeah, gave me chances and wentit bad for me. So I
(34:58):
love mail comics. Is you know, I wouldn't be sitting here if it
were for a lot of male comics. It's true, it really is true.
But now I'd like to know,uh, if if I'm able to
take my shirt off like some malecomics are doing, I will. I'm
very curious about, like if Ijust did that, so but to get
(35:21):
like men, and I would imaginethe male comics have to agree with this
too. I mean their scope ofthings that they're able to do, I
think is a lot. It's alot wider, you know, so absolutely,
but that's the audience. But that'sthe audience. That's what they want
or that's what they expect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.
(35:42):
It's so true. I also wantto talk about you have your own podcasts,
yes, that you do once aweek. Yes, right, and
it is called Sweet and Salty withEllen Carris because I am as sweet as
you can see. I can bevery and I can very salty, but
I was told I can't be saltybecause it's cable, and well, you
(36:05):
be salty as well, because youdon't curse you a freg the sugar.
You know, we substitute some wordshere. But you started that. You
said how many seasons? Nine seasons, like twenty fifteen. Yeah, that's
commitment, girl, it really is. Because I've been doing this five years,
and yeah, that is commitment.Yeah. I love it. I
love interviewing people. I've been doingthe last six months. I've been doing
(36:28):
them solo, just just from atime constraint. But I just make sure
I put something out there once aweek. And you weren't doing it out
of the comic strip. Yeah.I started actually in Brooklyn at a radio
station internet radio station in Brooklyn calledB Box. I did that for quite
a while, and then I movedup to the comic strip, which was
great because it was much closer towhere I lived, right and that was
(36:51):
fun. And then COVID had happened. But then everybody was doing everything on
Zoom. I was able to dothings on Zoo, to do any stand
up shows on soon I did oha lot. Oh yeah, I did
a lot of corporates. I stilldo some once in a while. That
that was an interesting I remember thefirst one I did was a couple of
(37:12):
weeks after the lockdown and it wasfor a family that was out in the
Hampton's and they wanted to have someentertainment, so they hired me. We
started at nine o'clock. It wasin the basement of this house that they
rented in the Hantons. They justhad a what they told me like a
(37:32):
Thanksgiving dinner, which was you know, turkey and gravy and you know,
lots of food. And by thetime we sat down to do it,
and I just I was trying tofeel my way around, like how do
I do that? Do I lookat the camera, do I look at
the computer? Or doing this andthat. We made a makeshift, you
know, sort of stage. Myhusband's putting sheets up and I'd be like,
(37:58):
look so white trash, just likegolfl. All we needed was like
an old couch with a ripping itin front of me. It was awful.
So h and then I'll never forgetand I'm like doing my thing and
blah blah blah. I've got somejokes about COVID this and that and like
and then I'm trying to look inmy laptop into the camera and when I
look down, I see like there'sa dog walking across that they the people
(38:22):
have like their bare feet up likethis. I'm just like, this is
so interesting. But I'm gonna keepgoing. I'm gonna keep going, and
I'm gonna pretend like this is normal, which is not. Yeah, so
it was definitely an experience. Ipersonally didn't do any I chose not to
and and did other things. Butyeah, it was well. I will
(38:46):
say that after the third time Iwas on a show. It was a
fundraiser that was supposed to go onlike that May and they decided to do
a zoom. So I was partof a lineup and on that show,
I found my rhythm and I foundwhat work. And as matter of fact,
the person who produced the show waslike texting me after he was like,
(39:07):
oh my god, that was sogood. Whatever I go. This
is my third one. I thinkI figured out. I hang of it.
I figured it out, and uhyeah, So I do them,
and I to tell you the truth, I love them. I mean that's
not what I want it all tobe. But uh yeah, I'd say
once a month or so, I'lldo like a corporate. It's usually like
a corporate and it's good and it'sfun and they have fun. And you
(39:30):
have to know that you're not goingto hear laughter. You have to have
everybody off mic because it's too distracting. You don't want to hear anyone or
the dog, the bathroom flush,the door, the dog, whatever they're
fighting, or the refrigerator or pouring, you know whatever. And then and
then like let's just say, youhave you know, seventy people. I
(39:52):
mean, I'm only going to beable to see who I'm able to see
and try to do a little crowdwork. But but I don't mind doing
them. But again as a supplement, not as like you know, like
the real thing. Hey listen,we're gonna take my next break. Please
stay there, don't go away.We'll be back after This wonder Woman was
(40:22):
everything to little girls, especially thatlooked like me. She stands for being
a voice for people that need avoice. My organization renovates homes for people
with disabilities, and when I comehome a self care routine makes me feel
my best. I'm very proud ofthe difference that we're making, and to
(40:43):
see that impact in my community inspiresme to work even harder for everyone around
me. Hi. I'm Georgia Rose, founder of Zankuda. You can watch
me on the soul Space podcast everyFriday at noon on Channel twenty for spiritual
items. And as you all know, that is how I first opened into
my own psychic gifts was through theangelic realm astrology, and so we've got
(41:07):
Mars and the Sun together in Scorpio, which creates a lot of combustion.
In the astrological world, we callit a Kazini and taro. When the
four cups right side up, itmeans we have a lot of choices to
make and we're not looking at what'sreally being divinely given to us. We're
too busy in the busyness of thechoices to really see the divine intervention of
divine timing and fine divan Where theplace? Watch the Soul Space podcast,
(41:45):
Nah, who's the best comedian?You know? And Row? Who's your
Fabor Guinea? Now? Terretha Farrow? All right, I love you.
(42:09):
I ain't doing South Voy today.Why are you watching me? You should
be watching Teresa Contis, Racy TeeTime with Teresa Knnis. Dracy Farrell makes
sure you you you follow Teresa onFacebook Tee Time with Teresa Kntis, Tracy
far We'll see you there the wayyou say my name. Well, hello
(42:31):
everybody, welcome back, Hey Docgoodin. Congratulations to Doc. They retired
his number. He was at CityField on uh was it Sunday? Sunday
and a couple of my friends wherethey asked, so congratulations Doc had him
on the show virtually hoping to gethim in that chair one day if someone
(42:51):
goes to pick him up for me. So congratulations, Doc, I love
you, my friend. I'm withHello, Well Ellen Chars Caris Caris and
she's an actor, she's a producer, she's a writer and hello, stand
up comedian and author, author.Tell me about this book. It's as
(43:12):
special people godparents in the Orthodox Christianfaith, because you know, godparents are
so important in your faith as wellas Catholic Italians, we godparents alike.
You know. Yes, I'm actuallyI'm a godmother, so it's so important
to me. I'm a godmother ninetimes because well apparently I was always available.
(43:32):
So I'm very proud of this bookbecause, like I said, I'm
a Sunday school teacher as well.And for the first bunch of years I
had the little kids, Yeah,and I wanted to teach them some of
the Greek traditions as well, andI want to talk about godparents, and
well, we're all baptized. Christiansare baptized, you know, and John
(43:54):
the Baptist and all that, andthen I want to get into you know,
fast forward. You know, we'reall baptized because Christ was baptized.
So I couldn't find a book.I couldn't find anything online. So I
was like, I'm going to writea book. I've never written a children's
book before. I don't work otherthan Sunday school. It's not like I
(44:15):
was a teacher, right. Ihad the idea for the text, and
I wrote that and then I kindof put it aside. And then a
few years later, I'm like,I got to finish this, and I've
got a lot of projects like that. And then I found an illustrator and
(44:36):
I worked with her, and thenyou know, I found out that children's
books, the pictures have to matchthe word. So you know, that
was a little education. But it'sa really beautiful book and it's about the
relationship of god parents with their godchildren. I say Orthodox Christian faith because
it goes through some of the thingsthat we do in our faith and the
(44:58):
baptism and the chrismation. So I'lljust give you just one little fact.
But in your religion, you haveyour first communion when you're like six or
seven, and then you have yourconfirmation when you're about twelve thirteen. In
our religion, we get baptized,we get confirmed, and we have our
(45:19):
first communion where we're baptized. Okay, yeah, So anyway, so I
go through all of that and thenthe relationship that you have with them and
the responsibility of the god parent.And another reason why I wrote this is
because my godmother my aunt who tookme to my first play, and I
love very much. She was ahuge inspiration to me, and so this
(45:42):
was dedicated to her and homage toher. And she was a school librarian,
so she's all about books. Soa lot of meeting meaning to it.
It's sweet. It's available on Amazon. I mean even if you're not
Orthodox Christian Christian, I mean,I don't know. If you're not Christian
and you want to teach you killit's true as well. And it's not
heavy duty. Yeah, no,no, it's a sweet book. And
(46:05):
like I said, I I reallylove the illustrations, the the the illustrator
did a great job. But Iwill tell you it took five years.
I was just going to tell youhow long it took you to do that.
I can't and not a money maker. It's a labor of love,
not a moneymaker. So you,yeah, don't do that. It's a
labor. But but no, right, it's a labor love. I sell
them after shows. Yeah, yeah, it's a part of my brand.
Nice. It's good. But youcould find her Ellen on uh Instagram as
(46:31):
Greek chick comic okay, also EllenCarris on Facebook and you can go to
her website www dot Ellencrackcarras dot com. And there is everything. There's her
bio, there's picks, there's upcomingshows if you want to see her,
(46:52):
because she travels. She's she cameback from Florida and you you travel all
over in Florida three times in thelast three months. Yeah, so you
know, you all over the place. We have some picks actually that I
want to put up with you withsome celebrities because I love me some celebrities.
So there's you a Marlo Thomas,so I have. I was excited
(47:12):
to meet her because when I wasa little girl, people said I look
like Marlo Thomas. I can seeit like that, I can see Yeah.
So when I met her, Iwas like, ah, so sweet.
Yeah, she's a nice lady fromcheers cheers, Yes, yes,
yes, yep, I can't rememberJohnny Watson, thank you now, this
(47:32):
one hold that there. I loveOlympia Ducacis. I love her. I
just watched Moonstruck coming home on theplane from my parents, freaking love her.
Tell me how this happened. Wait, Moons, I've seen it about
a bazillion Oh, oh, Iknow, I've seen it a million times,
but I actually wanted to watch iton the plane coming home from Florida,
(47:52):
but it was at an event.And actually, I'll tell you that
was the second time I met her. Really the first. The first time
I met her was in my beginningsof doing Greek American comedy. That pr
woman that I told you about,her name was Ona. Yeah, she
arranged it. There was an openingof a restaurant, a Greek restaurant downtown.
(48:15):
But we get to the restaurant therewas like nothing there. There were
no tables, no nothing. Sheinvited Olympia, who lived like in the
West Village or something, and soI opened up and I did like ten
minutes of stand up. There's Olympia. Okay, big movie star Oscar Winner.
She's the woman sitting on a cratewith her husband Louis, who was
(48:36):
in Mad about You. Yeah,Louise Zorch I think it was the last
name him. I arrided up chattingwith him too for a while. They
were very nice, she was laughing, she was very sweet. I gave
him later on that I think Igave him my DVD at like that event.
And she was amazing. She wasa real actors actor. Yeah,
she passed away not that long ago. Yeah, yeah, she was great.
Miss after that? Oh you andDrew opened up for him? Uh,
(49:01):
well you've worked with Drew, youworked with did you work with the
Sebastian I did? I worked onseas Votto photo of that? But and
and and wait and who else?Jimmy Walker and JJ yeah, Jess Yeah,
I think I shouldn't give you thatphoto. But yeah, you Carrey
was so nice. He watched allmy sets. He left. He was
(49:22):
great, he was and he's veryvery funny. And he does like twenty
five minutes on the prices right,which is hysterical. Wow. Now skip
the next one, go to theone under that. Thank you, that
is you. And hello, that'smy girl, Kelly Ripper. Yes,
Kelly, Yes, and again brainfart Kelly Ripper. She she's I heard,
(49:42):
she's a doll. Yeah. Wellwe're friends. Yeah, so we're
like real friends. Well you,well that's cool to know, but you
I just want to before you showthe picture before that you I give back.
You give back. You're involved inuh uh over in cancer research and
you also do the the operation Warriorway, Yes, for the meditation for veterans
(50:10):
with PTSDTSD. And then the pickbefore that is you and Bemi. Yes
at one of the they call itTeal Teal tell every Amazing lady avarian Cancer.
I m c their walk every yearfor the last thirteen years in the
(50:30):
Prospect Park, Brooklyn. We didvirtual during COVID, they were two years
they didn't do it, and thenlast year we came back. And as
matter of fact, Stacy Sager who'son Eyewitness News, yes, yes there
and I co hosts Yes. SoSteve came with his wife a few years
ago she passed away of ovarian cancerJoe, which was very sweet. So
(50:50):
he's men of Teal. But theseare these are two, you know,
two things that you I think it'simportant you, especially as performers, and
most people do do that, rightthey have some kind of cause. You
know, you should pick a fewthings where you want to give back.
I love Teal. When is Tealdone? By the way, when is
that walk done? This second Saturday, it's the Saturday after Labor Day in
(51:15):
September, So is that that whateverthat following Saturday is. So I think
it's going to be the seventh becauseI think Labor Day is like the first
and Operation Warrior Wellness. I learnedhow to do transcendental meditation a while ago.
The man that runs actually that isthe guy by the name of Edge
Slowman. He's amazing. He's aVietnam Vet. He's all about meditation and
(51:39):
helping the vets. Look, Iam very blunt. I backed the Blue,
the huge supporter of the cops.I don't want to hear it.
I don't want to hear it veterans. It just blows my mind that we
do not help our veterans and we'reletting all these people in the country first,
and we're prioritizing them as opposed topeople that fought for our freedom.
(52:01):
I'm going to stop there because thenI'll go nuts. But anyway, I'm
very It's very close to me.My father was a marine. I had
my dad. Yeah, Army.Now did you meet originally meet Kelly through
the cancer? No? No,I met No, I met her.
(52:22):
I kind of met her through somebody. Then I went to the show a
few times, and then I startedworking out where she works out, and
then out there she's and by theway, she is so lovely and so
sweet. What you see is whatyou get. She's a very hard worker.
She's had a great career in daytimetelevision. She's very talented, she's
(52:46):
very fun the hard working woman.She wrote a book. She's very hard
work. She makes it look easy. Yes that's the trick. But she's
She's got three great the kids.They're like young adults. Yeah. C
a very solid and we had Harrmakatogether on the show Now the Truth,
I tell the truth. I've beenwanting him on that show with her for
(53:06):
a long time. He's great.He's just it was like nothing, there
was no transition he had He didco host a lot, you know,
but he's really good at it.He's very funny. He's also very smart.
He's very very quick. Yeah,quick, quick witted, which is
great. Well, listen, wehave like two minutes left. This went
so fast. Is there anything thatI didn't cover that maybe you want to
(53:29):
mention. I mean, I knowyou mentioned a sweet and salty. He
did something else called keras clips.Yeah, yeah, that was just something.
But yeah, just thing. Imean, look, I'm trying to
write it again being reasonable with you. By the way, with you,
I mean you had that was yeah, you know that was by the way,
I'm melon Charras. That was mystandup comedy DVD. Yeah, being
(53:49):
reasonable with Illan Karaen's what you didto do that podcast that I used to
do twenty sixteen. Yeah, soI don't know when was that filmed Broadway
Comedy Club. It's probably time todo another comedies shoal, but it is
it is. But I'm trying towrite a play about my great grandmother.
Oh great, So again another unfinishedproblem, another unfinished a stage. Thank
you, my best uh. AndI did a documentary you talked about Al
(54:13):
Martin. Yes, I have thisdocumentary that I have to put out there.
I interviewed people during COVID Al wasone of them, and he did
an amazing interview. So that's anotherthing I have to put out there.
And see. You got some thingstrying to write. Also in my own
book, which Kelly was like,do it, I'll read it for you.
I just did a book, soI got to get that, you
(54:34):
know, choppy chopping. Yeah,definitely. But I'm too busy doing my
spreadsheet to see how much money Idon't make and stare up comedy. That's
what I'm obsessed with. Oh mygod, listen to me. I want
to thank you so much for takingthe trip to Long Island. That's a
big I appreciate it. Of course, we had been wed before the show.
Thank you again for coming out.Thank you, My door is always
(54:55):
open to you. I want tothank everyone for watching tea time, supporting
me my show. Tune in everyMonday, eight o'clock right here. Remember
everybody, tell everyone you love youlove them, and I'll see you next
week. Chat
Good evening, and welcome to teeTime. Hey everybody, welcome to tea
(01:26):
Time. It is Monday night.It's April fifteenth, Tax Day. I'm
so glad you're joining me tonight.I'm gonna you know, I'm not gonna
talk about my weekend I normally do. I'm gonna talk about how I wasn't
here last week. And I hopeyou all watch my repeat show with Al
Martin. May he rest in peace, wonderful, wonderful man who started out
as a comic and the owner ofthe Broadway comedy club. Instead, I'm
(01:48):
gonna talk about Florida because that's whereI went to go visit my parents.
But before we put up any picks, I just want to say murdered by
the Mob. There's Ralph Brocco andI and Veto And if you have nothing
to do, go to murder bythemob dot com and just look up shows.
Come see one. It's like goingto an Italian wedding. Someone gets
(02:09):
whacked. You gotta figure it out. You eat, you sing, you
dance, you drink a lot offun. All right, So let me
get to Florida. Florida, Iwent to go see my parents. There's
my mom. Look at mom.Jean Kennis. Tracy's gonna be eighty six
years old next month on May fourth, and Dad is eighty nine. Now.
He gets up every morning at fivethirty to walk and mom rides her
(02:32):
tricycle. I love it. Andthat next pick we've got there, Please,
they're gonna be married sixty seven yearsand they can't keep their hands off
of each other. I love them, so, thank you so much for
those picks. I had a blastseeing them. I needed a week in
(02:53):
Florida. And what do you doin Florida? Well, we played bingo,
we went to karaoke, we wentshopping, and of course we went
out to dinner. So I justhad a blast with my parents. And
they'll probably be back sometime in June. So that's that, all right.
I'm very excited because not his onlytax day. But I have a friend
(03:15):
of mine here who I met awhile ago and been trying to coordinate her
coming on my show. She's anactor, she's a writer, she's a
producer, she's a comedian, she'san author. This woman has done it
all. Ellen Harris is here.Hi Ellen, Hi, I'm good.
How are you. I'm excited,you're here. I'm me too. You
(03:36):
know, we met actually years agobefore we did Dangerfields together. You did
a show for John Lorochia. Yes, I was just about to say that,
Yeah, John Rochia, who doeslay have to save his lives?
And it was for rescuing families.Yeah, that's what we actually first met
met met. But the last showwe actually did together was at Danger Feels,
(04:00):
right before the pandemic, Like yeah, like the weekend before the Monday
that I hit the fan and did. We had a great time that night
doing a show for Jeff Criner.Shout out to Jeff. And but I
want everyone to get to know youbecause you've been in this business a long
time. First of all, Yes, what the gun is? Gala?
(04:24):
Very nice, I'm impressed. Yes, I went to high school with Zoe.
Uh huh. Yeah, so youknow I learned a little bit.
Yes, I can't say the restbecause most of it's bad and dirty,
you know. Yeah, that's whatGreeks do. We teach you. We
don't teach you like you know,happiness and love. We we we go
right to the curse words. Sobasically, you grew up in Manhattan,
(04:47):
yes, your whole life. Yeah, and pretty much now left. Yeah,
pretty much. I'm on the island. I'm stuck on that island like
Gilligans, except hellot dirtier. Uhyeah, yeah. I mean I went
to high school. I went toschool in the suburbs, but then you
know, and then I went tocollege and then I was like okay,
and then I just came back.I mean I graduated and the next month
(05:10):
I had an accounting job. Yeahyou you you you you have a uh
accounting degree as an accounting of anm b A and finance. Hello heavy
small woman. She's good with numberyes, and it's just so ironic and
you like on tax I know,I totally totally. I mean I just
(05:33):
mentioned it like right before we goton there, and I just want people
to know because I still have alittle accounting empathy in my heart. Don't
I don't think that you still havetime to go to your accountant tonight to
ask him to finish. But didyou just go on extension then? Yeah?
You know, you know, don'tdon't. Yeah, it's all right,
(05:56):
I mean, it's that's what it'sthere for. I don't want to
talk about that. When was theaudience when you were in school high school?
I mean college. You kind oflike had an idea of the direction
you wanted to go. But whenyou in school, were you into the
arts in the theater and performing.I didn't do any of that. You
didn't nothing. So I used tocome home and watch soap operas. But
(06:20):
I loved TV. I watched alot of TV from the time I was
little. That was the babysitter.Right now it would be like almost criminals,
rich your kid invite. Well nowit's videos, but yeah, sort
of, I guess the same thing. So I loved sitcoms. I just
watch I Love Lucy with my greatmy great grandmother, and you know all
(06:41):
the sitcoms, the rerun the oldsitcoms and you know the newer ones,
the you know that we're on.And so I really wanted to be on
a sitcom. That was my dream. And anyway, but there's nothing to
do with like, you know,I didn't. I don't have a Hollywood
family or nobody's in the arts.In my family. We have no talent
(07:02):
on both sides, nothing horrific.Nobody can sing, nobody the dancing is
awful. They're really not good people, good cooks, other skill sets,
but not not performing arts. Soanyway, went to college. I actually
college. I knew I wanted tobe an account and I wanted to go
(07:24):
into business. I was. Iwas obviously very good at math, that
was my strong suit, and I'mvery good in actually advanced algebra. But
nobody still to this day has askedme to calculate a quadratic a cake equation
yet. So anyway, and thenI went to work, like right out
of college, got a job anda large counting firm. I was an
(07:46):
auditor for a long time. Idid taxes, I did small business,
I did large business. I reallygot quite the foray. And then I
was like a lot of people thatI knew were going to Wall Street making
much more money. I was workinga bazillion hours. And so I went
and got my MBA, and thenI worked in an investment banking firm as
(08:07):
a derivatives analyst. I know again, I don't want to lose anybody.
So then I was going to takemy CFA, which is the Chartered Financial
Analyst exam, and I actually tookthe first part and I passed. And
I took the second part. Ididn't really study for it. I didn't
pass, and that was actually agreat thing that happened, because then I
was like, you know what,I don't want to do this anymore.
(08:30):
I've gone through a lot of school. I'm totally proud of it, and
to this day, I don't regretit. Obviously, nobody could take away
my background, my degree is myeducation. But I had to do something
fun. So just to get backto your question, because I grew up
in New York City, I actuallyit was really my aunt. My aunt
(08:50):
who's my godmother, who I'm veryclose with, love the art. She
was also a teacher, so she'dhave any kids of her own, but
we were like her kids. Andshe took me to my first play at
Lincoln Center when I was four yearsold. So I would say, I
that's when I really like loved itand was just in awe of live performance,
(09:11):
you know. And then over theyears went to see Broadway shows and
the ballet and you know, andall that kind of stuff. So I
was always around it and from youknow that, from from that perspective,
so fast forward, I'm like,you know what, I'm going to take
an acting class. I've never takenan acting class. I took an improv
class at the New School. Iloved it. It was fun. We
weren't talking about reports, we weren'ttalking about the balance sheet. It was
(09:35):
just so freeing to just be mysilly self. And then I was like,
okay, and then I took anotherclass and we started talking about this
earlier. You know, it tooka commercials, film, soaps. This
that in New York had just aplethora of classes that you can just go
to for six weeks, eight weeksif you like a teacher, you know,
(09:56):
maybe six months this. So II I studied with a few teachers,
but the one teacher that really changedmy life. One of them was
a woman by the name of PennyTempleton. So now I'm three years into
this, I'm going to her classand she would have us improv something from
our life at the time that whateverwas going on, just as a warm
(10:18):
up. So I would come inevery week and one of my sisters was
getting married, and it was alwayslike a drama. I remember my sister
going, you're going on vacation.We have this wedding to plan. I
go, we don't have a weddingto break, you have a wedding to
plan. I mean, I'm yourmaid of honor. But you have your
wedding book. So anyway, Iwould go through all this. And Penny
said to me, and I'll neverforget this and change my life completely.
(10:39):
She goes, I have two notesfor you. One is you should write
a play about your sister's wedding,Greek wedding. And I go before the
movie an hour ago. Who's gonnawant to see that? No one's going
to relate to that because I havevision. And the second thing she said
is I hope you talk about yourGreek family stand up And I said,
(11:01):
I don't do stand up, andshe said, and this is exactly what
she said, get some wow.And I remember that night as if it
was yesterday, and it wasn't.I was in the cab, I'm going
home. I'm sitting there and I'mlike sitcoms and I'm like stand up and
I'm like, well, maybe ifI become a stand up, I can
get a sitcom. Because all ofthe stand ups like Seinfeld, like Roseanne
(11:26):
and Brett Butler, by Ellen Ellen, they were all right and they all
got sitcoms. And that's that's great. That's what I'm gonna do. That's
how I'm gonna get my sitcom,did you I know, good thing?
We didn't know that that's not happening. So so then and that was it.
(11:46):
And then it just parlayed. SoI went to the comic strip yep.
I took a class with a guyby the name of Def Sweetler,
who is still there and looks exactlythe same. I don't know what times
got at home, okay, butand I did. I did a class
and you know, you do yourfirst show. And I thought it was
(12:07):
fun. I thought it was great. And then I liked it because I'm
a little bit of a control freakand I felt like I had more control
because these are my words. Imean, they are still my words.
But of course, now that I'mover twenty years into it, you know,
it's about entertaining the audience and writingmaterial that people are going to relate
(12:28):
to and all that other kind ofstuff. But anyway, so that's how
the stand up really started. Butit was not my original intent and it
wasn't even anything. I was no, not at all something. Yeah.
So but going back, I hadit inside me. You know, I
was always very animated. I liketo tell stories. I like to be
the center of attention. My familyin my family, though not necessarily with
(12:52):
strange right, and you know,with Greek were loud. So your first,
your very first time you acted,because like you said, you took
a lot of different glasses. Butthe first, the first gig you ever
landed was what, Oh, you'renot gonna believe this. It was some
independent film that I found in backstage. So I started to get backstage,
(13:15):
and when it came I had anactual paper back right right. I don't
think I had it. I don'tknow. I think I had had chat
at that point. I don't knowwhat. I can't even remember what I
submitted, but anyway, and thefilm was called The Accountant. Really,
yes, yes, isn't that wild? Wow? Is that wild? It
is? But it was me andabout a zillion other people in like some
(13:37):
church gym on fifty fourth Street.You know, that was the first,
first, first, first thing Ihad ever did. But I remembered I
felt so invigorated and it was likeit was just we were a crowd.
We were dancing. Oh, wehad a like like rush like to the
middle. I remember I was wearingsandals and I had gotten a really nice
pedicure and somebody kicked my oh,and I chipped my pedicure, and I
(14:01):
was very I was like and becausebecause I was completely I was completely convinced
that, you know, my sandalsand my pretty feet were gonna be So
I never saw its full form,but that was one of my first things
that I that I remember that everdid. And then I did a lot
of like the Student films and againthe Independence and then and then and then
(14:26):
later on I stood in for SusanLucci on all my trolls. I could
still see that, so very verynice, lady, very nice. I
did it twice and she's one ofus, like tiny and she and I
remember being there. And this waswhen AFTRA was separate from SAG correct,
(14:48):
and they made me join AFTRA,which was only it was was a fee
right and uh that was it.It wasn't like SAG with the waivers and
it's going to be a whatever itwas because it was television. Yeah,
well I remember. I didn't wantto do it. I was annoyed.
As matter of fact, the firsttime I was at all my children,
I didn't join. And when theycalled me the second time, the guy
(15:11):
said you have to join the Rose, I can't hire you. So I
sucked it. Up, I wentdown. I paid it what I eight
hundred bucks whatever it was at thattime, and that was it. Thank
god, because years later, whenSagging after a merge, I was grandfathered.
I didn't have an initiation fee,so that really worked out. But
I was very annoyed. Right Ibelonged back back in nineteen eighty two three,
(15:37):
I belonged to a National Academy ofAuts and Science and I won.
I don't know how this happened,I don't remember, but I won a
day on the set of All myChildren, and Susan Lucci was there that
day and they were blocking, soI got to see, you know,
what they do because I didn't know. It was my first time on set,
and I'm thinking so tiny, yeah, like they look so big right
(16:00):
on TV. And then you getthere and they're like I knew, yeah,
she's teeny tiny. But the firstsoap I worked on was Another World,
and that was in Brooklyn, sothat's what had happened. I worked
on that one. Then when Idid All My Children, the Union guy
was on the set. I gotaway with that one, but then when
(16:22):
it was the third time, theywere like no, yeah, oh no,
no, I'm sorry it was asthe world turns, as the world
churt. Yeah yeah, all right, well listen, we have to take
my first break. Don't go awaymore with Ellen. When we get back,
We'll be back after these messages.Don't go away? All right?
(16:53):
Is everybody having a good time tonightor lot? That's what I thought.
(17:17):
I don't want to call back downfrom that this time. Well, Hi
(17:51):
there, Teresa, It's John Yorkfrom General Hospital. I am just checking
in because apparently you have a greattalk show called Tea Time on Strong Island
TV. I want you to havecontinued great success and have a lot of
fun. It sounds like you're havinga lot of fun, and that's pretty
much the key to everything, isn'tit. So continued success. I'm proud
(18:12):
of you. Have a great day, Teresa. Bye. Hey, everybody,
welcome back to t TOM. Igotta give some shout outs to Ann
and Greg and Michael. John Massina'swatching, John Santo's watching, I'm sure
Bruno's watching. Thank you. Everyone. Please like the show, please share
it. I'm on every Monday night, Facebook and YouTube live and then it
(18:34):
goes to Roku TV, Amazon,Fire TV, Twitch TV, everywhere.
Podcasts can be heard and seeing everySaturday at ten am on Channel twenty for
people who live on Long Island andget Optimum. I'm so excited because my
friend Ellen is here. She's anactor, writer, producer, and comedian.
She's done acting, she's done standup, she's done it all.
And we met through stand up andwanted to talk to you about we got
(19:02):
into the acting thing and your firstgig and how you became sag because you
were a grandfather dang. A lotof people like you said you gotta get
waifers, so sometimes you get itTaft Hartley and it's yeah, it's a
it's a whole it's a whole easy, it's a whole process. But you've
back in two thousand and you didsomething Cold early edition. You played a
doctor back then, that was withKyle Chandler. I did, Yeah,
(19:26):
what it says? I m Dmay I don't know. I got.
I got some creds here that Iwanted to go through. You've played,
You've played in the Greek Gods ofComedy, which actually you wrote that was
comedy. Yeah that was and youwrote and you executive produced that. Yes,
yes, you tell me how thatcame to be. So again,
(19:48):
I just backtrack a second. Sowhen I decided to jump into the stand
up comedy pool at the Shallow End, uh, you know, doing standup
for a little while, and Iremember, I'll say his name. His
name is Eric Hanson. He wasa manager. He actually runs Broadway Comedy
Club. He does a lot ofdifferent things. But at the time I
(20:11):
was taking a writing class. Therewas a bunch of us and I remember
him saying to me, you know, he represented Mody, if you remember
Mody r MODI. She's like,you know, Mody does a lot of
you know, temples and synagogue.He's like, yeah, they're like a
Greek community that you can, youknow, perform at. And I was
like, well, yeah, Imean there's a community, but comedy I
(20:33):
don't know. And so, longstory short, I got in touch with
a woman that I had met overthe year. She was a pr person
blah blah, and she got meinto a couple of things and that really
started my foray into the Greek audience. So but in my stand up I
talked about being obviously growing up Greekand my parents and all that other kinds
(20:56):
of stuff. So that was natural. But then, you know, as
time went on, and I wasdoing those shows. I made it much
more specific for our people and andwhatnot. So that special was I think
in two thousand and seven, andI did it with a couple of other
guys and we recorded it at GothamComedy Clubs. Yeah, I have two
thousand and eight, but somewhere somewherearound there. Well, you grew up.
(21:18):
I grew up in a very strictItalian household. You grew up in
a very strict Greek. Oh yourhousehold? Yes? Were you? Were
you the oldest? Yeah, metoo. Yeah, the oldest girl does
not make it any easier. Idon't have any brothers, so it was
all girls, okay, but youwere the icebreaker. Oh totally for them.
Oh yeah, no, no questionabout it. Yeah, yeah,
(21:38):
totally. Oh you're welcome, Yeahexactly. But you did you You've done
many different party again. You've doneshorts, You've done TV series. You
did something did you did Finding whichwas a short way on New York?
Yeah, you played the director.That was a TV series that Yeah,
that was fun. Yeah yeah,yeah, you did to twenty fourteen.
(22:00):
You did Yellow Brick. I think, hell, it's a TV series.
You did Living in Exile. Youplayed Athena. Oh yeah that was Now.
I know you do speak Greek andyou have in your acting. You've
done some things because it's what you'rereal. You speaking Greek. Yes,
do you feel comfortable doing that?Yeah? I mean I can't be like
twenty five minutes of straight Greek.So my Greek's not bad, It's good.
(22:25):
I went to Greek school for eightyears, but you know, it's
like I took Spanish for seven yearsin school. You think I would be
fluid. You know, my greatgrandmother, my grandmother spoke. Now it's
funny. My Greek actually got betterbecause of doing Greek American comedy, and
also over the years, I've gottenvery involved with the church. I'm a
(22:48):
Sunday school teacher. I've got aton of Greek girlfriends. So it's funny.
My Greek is definitely much better thanit's as best as it's ever been.
So I'd really love to be alittle bit more structured and learned.
I could. The reading came backto me. That was the one thing,
like I hadn't really read anything ina long long time, and now
(23:11):
I can, I can, Ican read now. I know in Italian
we have a lot of different dialects. Is that the same with Greeks?
Oh yeah, well, I'd saythe biggest dialect difference is the Greeks in
Greece and then the Cypriot Greeks.So my mother's side is from Cyprus.
Okay, so that one that's definitelya different Uh much you can tell when
(23:34):
someone's Cypriot, Yeah, got it, got it. You also did The
Closer. You played a waitress.What exit again? Athena? So you
played a woman named Athena twice?Yes, my first meetup was a short.
Yeah you played Ala, Yeah yeah, Yeahsten damn bro you played a
teacher, actually played Helen as aTV series. Uh spiros euros I'm mis
(24:03):
saying it right. Yeah, thatactually never came to fruition, It didn't,
okay, but that was that wasyeah George, you know George.
Yes, I worked with him ononce a once a once a week for
Life, huh okay. And thenyou did A Thousand Miles you play Tilly
and that was with Betina Sky.Yes, yes, yes, you know,
(24:26):
I haven't thought about any of theseand like you're like, i'd like
if you do the man you kindof like, you know, you put
them away like, I get it. You know, it's kind of like
your favorite doll and you put iton the shelf for a while and then
you're like, I remember playing withthat. Yeah, yeah, something like
that. Yeah, I have.I've done a bunch of things that you
know, but you've you've done,You've done, You've done. You know.
You also have done The Irishman,The Punisher, Billions, Blacklist,
(24:52):
Sopranos. Yeah, sisters, andagain a recurring role which we have a
pick of you and your recurring roleas a waitress in the novelist Missus Maisel.
There there you are, and I'llgo go back to the other one.
There you are. Kill Hold thata second. There you are on
your waitress. I love period pieces, isn't it great? And then the
(25:14):
next one is you with with them? How great and cool was that series?
It really was, So I willI'll tell you a backstory to it.
So when I got called, Iwent to the fitting. So this
was for season two. I wasn'tin season one. And I remember in
the in the dressing room, Iput that little waitress uniform on and the
(25:40):
button right here was a little tight. It was tiny, I was And
I remember one of the wardrobe peoplegoing oh, this is a little tight
on her, and then the otherwardrobe person goes, well, then we
can get we'll get somebody else,and they go no, no, no,
I will not eat. I willnot whatever mine. They're like,
(26:00):
all right, I mean it buttoned, but it was a little tight.
So I fit into it. Iwoul fit into it, huh. And
it was. It was amazing.So I just worked in the deli.
I never got out of the deli. So I was on season two,
three, four five, same costume. The hair always wound up being different,
(26:22):
I will tell you. The onenot great thing was that period pieces
women have to cut their hair,so my hair is always pretty much on
the long side. Did you agreeto that? I did agree to it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, ofcourse you have to agree to it.
Well, I know a friend ofmine who went and pinned her own
hair up and they let her dothat. See, I don't know.
(26:44):
I didn't really think I had anoption. So I had for four years
horrible haircuts, really yeah, becauseI don't like my hair up to hear,
And for three seasons I had themdo it. And the last haircut
that I got from them was horrific, really they I mean they just went
(27:07):
and took shears and she just startedchopping away. So when they called me
the left for the last season,I said, I will do it,
but I'm going to my own personto cut my hair, which again I
don't even know that that was anoption. You have an option of a
wig. I don't understand. No, I know, I know may Rachel
obviously wore a wig. So anyway, her hair right, and it was
(27:30):
like blonde, like her hair wasnot what it is. So but to
get to the more positive stuff,it really was. I mean it was
a sitcom that was a sitcom andand it was fun and fun. It
was fun. The woman Amy Palladino, Amy Sherman Palladino, who wrote Gilmore
(27:51):
Girls and everything. She had beenon set and stuff. She's a real
bundle. You know, she's inthe back and she's you know, you
know, why why is this?Why is that? I mean, but
she knows what she's doing. Youknow, she grew up in the business.
I mean, amazing, amazing,So it was great. It was
it was it was the real deal. I was with real actors, Rachel
real real, yeah, real andAlex uh incredible. I did there was
(28:15):
a lot of scenes. I wasthere with them and it was so much
fun. Were able to hang outwith them at all? No, I
mean I had a little chit chatwith Rachel, but but you know,
everybody's in their zone, and Idon't you know, you don't really want
to unless you have I do wantto bother them unless you really have something
to say. Then there's nothing tosay, you know, so you just
(28:37):
respect their space. That was Thatwas great, Just a great series from
there, from there was there.I know you also did political Uh you
were political humorist. That's what youif you agree to that. And you
on Hannity, yes, like aroundthree times. You also on Say Anything
(29:00):
with Joy Behar. And you alsotook a daily show with John Stewart that
was a sketch. Well that wasa sketch sketchy day. Yeah, yeah,
that was, but that's still helloHello. Yeah, but that wasn't
like Hannity. I was like talking. I did Red Eye, were very
funny. I actually watched whatever.You know you had a fan. I'm
like, this is hysterical. It'sreally good because a lot of your comedy
(29:22):
is observational comedy. Yes, andI know that you like any comic.
We talk about what we know,our experiences, whether it's family or I
know you mentioned your husband. Ido too. There's a lot of you
know things that we pull from.Yes, but is there a topic that
you try to stay away from itall considering we have this woke h society
(29:45):
going on. Because I've talked aboutthis before on the show, I am
not launchy. That's just not myhumor. I don't really want to hear
it personally. It's never real reallyfunny ever very rarely. So I don't
that I just don't do because Idon't like it, and I always have.
(30:07):
I will tell you something that actuallyDF Sweetler told me and I carry
it with me to this day.I remember that first first comedy class.
He said to me, I wantyou to write clean because you can always
make clean dirty. You can't makedirty clean. And it stuck with me.
And then you said, of course, and you can work more if
you're you're clean comic and be onTV and all this other kind of stuff.
(30:30):
So that was always my mindset.And do I sho I don't.
I don't really shy away from anything. I mean, look, I'm not
there to piss anybody get you aggregateand all. So I don't say I
(30:52):
I don't really have anything I shyaway from. If you're going to do
political humor, I mean on thoseshows you know, when you're on I
had any you're going to talk politics, right, So, and I used
to do the show on Fox Businesscalled Bulls and Bears, which was at
four o'clock after the bell from NewYork Stock Exchange when you know, the
(31:14):
market clothes. But I that wasa little bit more with my business background.
But I would you know, I'dcrack a joke here and there and
stuff like that. But but itwas really my business background that kind of
got me on that. So butyou know, if you're going to do
politics, like I think Lewis Blackis a great example because he puts down
(31:36):
both sides. I think there isa lot there. Okay, but but
if it's one sided, as faras I'm concerned that it's not going to
work. Right. So it's thebalance. Yeah, I'm not gonna I'm
not talking about race. It's justwhat wouldn't work well for me, you
know, not that I have adesire to do that. I'm just saying,
like, so that's just something youknow, I'm not into I like
(32:02):
I do do marriage material, whetheryou're married or whether you're a couple.
You know, dating everybody relates tothat they've been in a relationship. I
do some stuff about kids and someyou know, getting older, and then
things that just you know, happenand that are new, and then you
know, you stick that in there. So I do admire comics that say
(32:25):
I'm working on a whole new hour. So I mean, I don't.
I don't bless, I know,I think that's amazing. I'm more like
I take something out, I putsomething in. I take that, you
know, and then ultimately right,it's a different saying. So but no,
I don't. But I'm not again, like I said, I'm not
looking to offend and or say aword where everybody's gonna be like like,
(32:49):
that's not But is it true?Is it true? During one of your
sets, you had mentioned that youworked for one of the accounting firms that
handles the Academy. Yes, yes, that is correct, yes, yes,
yes, yes, says I havea better shot at going to the
Oscars as an accountant than I doas an actress. So it's all work.
That is a great line. It'sit's a great line. How many
(33:12):
more years? Oh my god,it's a crazy so funny. This is
insane. It's a crazy industry.But I'm like, we chose an industry
we love, but it doesn't loveyou back. Really. It's sometimes very
abusive, it is, isn't it. It's like we we just yeah,
it's it's yeah, my comics arein therapy. I or indeed it.
(33:32):
I say that first of all,if you you have to want to do
this, I mean like, okay, let's say you start out, you're
curious, you go to open mics, you do some bringer shows, that's
all great and stuff, but Ithink you get to the five year mark
like that. That was for me, you know where I was like,
all right, yeah, either doingthis or I'm out because it's too hard.
(33:54):
It is, and I tell peoplethis all the time. Someone I
get off stage like, oh mygod, I know how you get up
there and this and that the stageisn't the hard part. It's the getting
the work. Yeah, that's thepart that takes so much. It's getting
buked, getting bucked and it's stilla very well we were talking how you
know you're doing this twenty as Istarted in the early nineties and how it's
(34:15):
still a mail it's still a maledominated industry, and there's a lot of
it's hard to get stage time,and it's you know, you got to
you know, you hustle your book, yourself. You're doing everything else else,
everything, you know, and youand you, and you drive three
hours to do twenty minutes and youget a couple of hundred dolls if you
(34:37):
like so, well, it's crazy. It is. It is still male
dominated. It is. It's betterthan it was. It is and I
always like to say this though,Honestly, if it weren't for male comics,
I wouldn't have a career. Somany men have hired yes, yes,
yeah, gave me chances and wentit bad for me. So I
(34:58):
love mail comics. Is you know, I wouldn't be sitting here if it
were for a lot of male comics. It's true, it really is true.
But now I'd like to know,uh, if if I'm able to
take my shirt off like some malecomics are doing, I will. I'm
very curious about, like if Ijust did that, so but to get
(35:21):
like men, and I would imaginethe male comics have to agree with this
too. I mean their scope ofthings that they're able to do, I
think is a lot. It's alot wider, you know, so absolutely,
but that's the audience. But that'sthe audience. That's what they want
or that's what they expect. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true.
(35:42):
It's so true. I also wantto talk about you have your own podcasts,
yes, that you do once aweek. Yes, right, and
it is called Sweet and Salty withEllen Carris because I am as sweet as
you can see. I can bevery and I can very salty, but
I was told I can't be saltybecause it's cable, and well, you
(36:05):
be salty as well, because youdon't curse you a freg the sugar.
You know, we substitute some wordshere. But you started that. You
said how many seasons? Nine seasons, like twenty fifteen. Yeah, that's
commitment, girl, it really is. Because I've been doing this five years,
and yeah, that is commitment.Yeah. I love it. I
love interviewing people. I've been doingthe last six months. I've been doing
(36:28):
them solo, just just from atime constraint. But I just make sure
I put something out there once aweek. And you weren't doing it out
of the comic strip. Yeah.I started actually in Brooklyn at a radio
station internet radio station in Brooklyn calledB Box. I did that for quite
a while, and then I movedup to the comic strip, which was
great because it was much closer towhere I lived, right and that was
(36:51):
fun. And then COVID had happened. But then everybody was doing everything on
Zoom. I was able to dothings on Zoo, to do any stand
up shows on soon I did oha lot. Oh yeah, I did
a lot of corporates. I stilldo some once in a while. That
that was an interesting I remember thefirst one I did was a couple of
(37:12):
weeks after the lockdown and it wasfor a family that was out in the
Hampton's and they wanted to have someentertainment, so they hired me. We
started at nine o'clock. It wasin the basement of this house that they
rented in the Hantons. They justhad a what they told me like a
(37:32):
Thanksgiving dinner, which was you know, turkey and gravy and you know,
lots of food. And by thetime we sat down to do it,
and I just I was trying tofeel my way around, like how do
I do that? Do I lookat the camera, do I look at
the computer? Or doing this andthat. We made a makeshift, you
know, sort of stage. Myhusband's putting sheets up and I'd be like,
(37:58):
look so white trash, just likegolfl. All we needed was like
an old couch with a ripping itin front of me. It was awful.
So h and then I'll never forgetand I'm like doing my thing and
blah blah blah. I've got somejokes about COVID this and that and like
and then I'm trying to look inmy laptop into the camera and when I
look down, I see like there'sa dog walking across that they the people
(38:22):
have like their bare feet up likethis. I'm just like, this is
so interesting. But I'm gonna keepgoing. I'm gonna keep going, and
I'm gonna pretend like this is normal, which is not. Yeah, so
it was definitely an experience. Ipersonally didn't do any I chose not to
and and did other things. Butyeah, it was well. I will
(38:46):
say that after the third time Iwas on a show. It was a
fundraiser that was supposed to go onlike that May and they decided to do
a zoom. So I was partof a lineup and on that show,
I found my rhythm and I foundwhat work. And as matter of fact,
the person who produced the show waslike texting me after he was like,
(39:07):
oh my god, that was sogood. Whatever I go. This
is my third one. I thinkI figured out. I hang of it.
I figured it out, and uhyeah, So I do them,
and I to tell you the truth, I love them. I mean that's
not what I want it all tobe. But uh yeah, I'd say
once a month or so, I'lldo like a corporate. It's usually like
a corporate and it's good and it'sfun and they have fun. And you
(39:30):
have to know that you're not goingto hear laughter. You have to have
everybody off mic because it's too distracting. You don't want to hear anyone or
the dog, the bathroom flush,the door, the dog, whatever they're
fighting, or the refrigerator or pouring, you know whatever. And then and
then like let's just say, youhave you know, seventy people. I
(39:52):
mean, I'm only going to beable to see who I'm able to see
and try to do a little crowdwork. But but I don't mind doing
them. But again as a supplement, not as like you know, like
the real thing. Hey listen,we're gonna take my next break. Please
stay there, don't go away.We'll be back after This wonder Woman was
(40:22):
everything to little girls, especially thatlooked like me. She stands for being
a voice for people that need avoice. My organization renovates homes for people
with disabilities, and when I comehome a self care routine makes me feel
my best. I'm very proud ofthe difference that we're making, and to
(40:43):
see that impact in my community inspiresme to work even harder for everyone around
me. Hi. I'm Georgia Rose, founder of Zankuda. You can watch
me on the soul Space podcast everyFriday at noon on Channel twenty for spiritual
items. And as you all know, that is how I first opened into
my own psychic gifts was through theangelic realm astrology, and so we've got
(41:07):
Mars and the Sun together in Scorpio, which creates a lot of combustion.
In the astrological world, we callit a Kazini and taro. When the
four cups right side up, itmeans we have a lot of choices to
make and we're not looking at what'sreally being divinely given to us. We're
too busy in the busyness of thechoices to really see the divine intervention of
divine timing and fine divan Where theplace? Watch the Soul Space podcast,
(41:45):
Nah, who's the best comedian?You know? And Row? Who's your
Fabor Guinea? Now? Terretha Farrow? All right, I love you.
(42:09):
I ain't doing South Voy today.Why are you watching me? You should
be watching Teresa Contis, Racy TeeTime with Teresa Knnis. Dracy Farrell makes
sure you you you follow Teresa onFacebook Tee Time with Teresa Kntis, Tracy
far We'll see you there the wayyou say my name. Well, hello
(42:31):
everybody, welcome back, Hey Docgoodin. Congratulations to Doc. They retired
his number. He was at CityField on uh was it Sunday? Sunday
and a couple of my friends wherethey asked, so congratulations Doc had him
on the show virtually hoping to gethim in that chair one day if someone
(42:51):
goes to pick him up for me. So congratulations, Doc, I love
you, my friend. I'm withHello, Well Ellen Chars Caris Caris and
she's an actor, she's a producer, she's a writer and hello, stand
up comedian and author, author.Tell me about this book. It's as
(43:12):
special people godparents in the Orthodox Christianfaith, because you know, godparents are
so important in your faith as wellas Catholic Italians, we godparents alike.
You know. Yes, I'm actuallyI'm a godmother, so it's so important
to me. I'm a godmother ninetimes because well apparently I was always available.
(43:32):
So I'm very proud of this bookbecause, like I said, I'm
a Sunday school teacher as well.And for the first bunch of years I
had the little kids, Yeah,and I wanted to teach them some of
the Greek traditions as well, andI want to talk about godparents, and
well, we're all baptized. Christiansare baptized, you know, and John
(43:54):
the Baptist and all that, andthen I want to get into you know,
fast forward. You know, we'reall baptized because Christ was baptized.
So I couldn't find a book.I couldn't find anything online. So I
was like, I'm going to writea book. I've never written a children's
book before. I don't work otherthan Sunday school. It's not like I
(44:15):
was a teacher, right. Ihad the idea for the text, and
I wrote that and then I kindof put it aside. And then a
few years later, I'm like,I got to finish this, and I've
got a lot of projects like that. And then I found an illustrator and
(44:36):
I worked with her, and thenyou know, I found out that children's
books, the pictures have to matchthe word. So you know, that
was a little education. But it'sa really beautiful book and it's about the
relationship of god parents with their godchildren. I say Orthodox Christian faith because
it goes through some of the thingsthat we do in our faith and the
(44:58):
baptism and the chrismation. So I'lljust give you just one little fact.
But in your religion, you haveyour first communion when you're like six or
seven, and then you have yourconfirmation when you're about twelve thirteen. In
our religion, we get baptized,we get confirmed, and we have our
(45:19):
first communion where we're baptized. Okay, yeah, So anyway, so I
go through all of that and thenthe relationship that you have with them and
the responsibility of the god parent.And another reason why I wrote this is
because my godmother my aunt who tookme to my first play, and I
love very much. She was ahuge inspiration to me, and so this
(45:42):
was dedicated to her and homage toher. And she was a school librarian,
so she's all about books. Soa lot of meeting meaning to it.
It's sweet. It's available on Amazon. I mean even if you're not
Orthodox Christian Christian, I mean,I don't know. If you're not Christian
and you want to teach you killit's true as well. And it's not
heavy duty. Yeah, no,no, it's a sweet book. And
(46:05):
like I said, I I reallylove the illustrations, the the the illustrator
did a great job. But Iwill tell you it took five years.
I was just going to tell youhow long it took you to do that.
I can't and not a money maker. It's a labor of love,
not a moneymaker. So you,yeah, don't do that. It's a
labor. But but no, right, it's a labor love. I sell
them after shows. Yeah, yeah, it's a part of my brand.
Nice. It's good. But youcould find her Ellen on uh Instagram as
(46:31):
Greek chick comic okay, also EllenCarris on Facebook and you can go to
her website www dot Ellencrackcarras dot com. And there is everything. There's her
bio, there's picks, there's upcomingshows if you want to see her,
(46:52):
because she travels. She's she cameback from Florida and you you travel all
over in Florida three times in thelast three months. Yeah, so you
know, you all over the place. We have some picks actually that I
want to put up with you withsome celebrities because I love me some celebrities.
So there's you a Marlo Thomas,so I have. I was excited
(47:12):
to meet her because when I wasa little girl, people said I look
like Marlo Thomas. I can seeit like that, I can see Yeah.
So when I met her, Iwas like, ah, so sweet.
Yeah, she's a nice lady fromcheers cheers, Yes, yes,
yes, yep, I can't rememberJohnny Watson, thank you now, this
(47:32):
one hold that there. I loveOlympia Ducacis. I love her. I
just watched Moonstruck coming home on theplane from my parents, freaking love her.
Tell me how this happened. Wait, Moons, I've seen it about
a bazillion Oh, oh, Iknow, I've seen it a million times,
but I actually wanted to watch iton the plane coming home from Florida,
(47:52):
but it was at an event.And actually, I'll tell you that
was the second time I met her. Really the first. The first time
I met her was in my beginningsof doing Greek American comedy. That pr
woman that I told you about,her name was Ona. Yeah, she
arranged it. There was an openingof a restaurant, a Greek restaurant downtown.
(48:15):
But we get to the restaurant therewas like nothing there. There were
no tables, no nothing. Sheinvited Olympia, who lived like in the
West Village or something, and soI opened up and I did like ten
minutes of stand up. There's Olympia. Okay, big movie star Oscar Winner.
She's the woman sitting on a cratewith her husband Louis, who was
(48:36):
in Mad about You. Yeah,Louise Zorch I think it was the last
name him. I arrided up chattingwith him too for a while. They
were very nice, she was laughing, she was very sweet. I gave
him later on that I think Igave him my DVD at like that event.
And she was amazing. She wasa real actors actor. Yeah,
she passed away not that long ago. Yeah, yeah, she was great.
Miss after that? Oh you andDrew opened up for him? Uh,
(49:01):
well you've worked with Drew, youworked with did you work with the
Sebastian I did? I worked onseas Votto photo of that? But and
and and wait and who else?Jimmy Walker and JJ yeah, Jess Yeah,
I think I shouldn't give you thatphoto. But yeah, you Carrey
was so nice. He watched allmy sets. He left. He was
(49:22):
great, he was and he's veryvery funny. And he does like twenty
five minutes on the prices right,which is hysterical. Wow. Now skip
the next one, go to theone under that. Thank you, that
is you. And hello, that'smy girl, Kelly Ripper. Yes,
Kelly, Yes, and again brainfart Kelly Ripper. She she's I heard,
(49:42):
she's a doll. Yeah. Wellwe're friends. Yeah, so we're
like real friends. Well you,well that's cool to know, but you
I just want to before you showthe picture before that you I give back.
You give back. You're involved inuh uh over in cancer research and
you also do the the operation Warriorway, Yes, for the meditation for veterans
(50:10):
with PTSDTSD. And then the pickbefore that is you and Bemi. Yes
at one of the they call itTeal Teal tell every Amazing lady avarian Cancer.
I m c their walk every yearfor the last thirteen years in the
(50:30):
Prospect Park, Brooklyn. We didvirtual during COVID, they were two years
they didn't do it, and thenlast year we came back. And as
matter of fact, Stacy Sager who'son Eyewitness News, yes, yes there
and I co hosts Yes. SoSteve came with his wife a few years
ago she passed away of ovarian cancerJoe, which was very sweet. So
(50:50):
he's men of Teal. But theseare these are two, you know,
two things that you I think it'simportant you, especially as performers, and
most people do do that, rightthey have some kind of cause. You
know, you should pick a fewthings where you want to give back.
I love Teal. When is Tealdone? By the way, when is
that walk done? This second Saturday, it's the Saturday after Labor Day in
(51:15):
September, So is that that whateverthat following Saturday is. So I think
it's going to be the seventh becauseI think Labor Day is like the first
and Operation Warrior Wellness. I learnedhow to do transcendental meditation a while ago.
The man that runs actually that isthe guy by the name of Edge
Slowman. He's amazing. He's aVietnam Vet. He's all about meditation and
(51:39):
helping the vets. Look, Iam very blunt. I backed the Blue,
the huge supporter of the cops.I don't want to hear it.
I don't want to hear it veterans. It just blows my mind that we
do not help our veterans and we'reletting all these people in the country first,
and we're prioritizing them as opposed topeople that fought for our freedom.
(52:01):
I'm going to stop there because thenI'll go nuts. But anyway, I'm
very It's very close to me.My father was a marine. I had
my dad. Yeah, Army.Now did you meet originally meet Kelly through
the cancer? No? No,I met No, I met her.
(52:22):
I kind of met her through somebody. Then I went to the show a
few times, and then I startedworking out where she works out, and
then out there she's and by theway, she is so lovely and so
sweet. What you see is whatyou get. She's a very hard worker.
She's had a great career in daytimetelevision. She's very talented, she's
(52:46):
very fun the hard working woman.She wrote a book. She's very hard
work. She makes it look easy. Yes that's the trick. But she's
She's got three great the kids.They're like young adults. Yeah. C
a very solid and we had Harrmakatogether on the show Now the Truth,
I tell the truth. I've beenwanting him on that show with her for
(53:06):
a long time. He's great.He's just it was like nothing, there
was no transition he had He didco host a lot, you know,
but he's really good at it.He's very funny. He's also very smart.
He's very very quick. Yeah,quick, quick witted, which is
great. Well, listen, wehave like two minutes left. This went
so fast. Is there anything thatI didn't cover that maybe you want to
(53:29):
mention. I mean, I knowyou mentioned a sweet and salty. He
did something else called keras clips.Yeah, yeah, that was just something.
But yeah, just thing. Imean, look, I'm trying to
write it again being reasonable with you. By the way, with you,
I mean you had that was yeah, you know that was by the way,
I'm melon Charras. That was mystandup comedy DVD. Yeah, being
(53:49):
reasonable with Illan Karaen's what you didto do that podcast that I used to
do twenty sixteen. Yeah, soI don't know when was that filmed Broadway
Comedy Club. It's probably time todo another comedies shoal, but it is
it is. But I'm trying towrite a play about my great grandmother.
Oh great, So again another unfinishedproblem, another unfinished a stage. Thank
you, my best uh. AndI did a documentary you talked about Al
(54:13):
Martin. Yes, I have thisdocumentary that I have to put out there.
I interviewed people during COVID Al wasone of them, and he did
an amazing interview. So that's anotherthing I have to put out there.
And see. You got some thingstrying to write. Also in my own
book, which Kelly was like,do it, I'll read it for you.
I just did a book, soI got to get that, you
(54:34):
know, choppy chopping. Yeah,definitely. But I'm too busy doing my
spreadsheet to see how much money Idon't make and stare up comedy. That's
what I'm obsessed with. Oh mygod, listen to me. I want
to thank you so much for takingthe trip to Long Island. That's a
big I appreciate it. Of course, we had been wed before the show.
Thank you again for coming out.Thank you, My door is always
(54:55):
open to you. I want tothank everyone for watching tea time, supporting
me my show. Tune in everyMonday, eight o'clock right here. Remember
everybody, tell everyone you love youlove them, and I'll see you next
week. Chat
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.