Yvette Nicole Brown

00:00:08
Speaker 1: That's okay because no one here is.

00:00:27
Speaker 2: Hello.

00:00:28
Speaker 3: Listeners of teen Beat or teats, Hmm, no, it doesn't sound like I hoped it would, So let me know in the comments what your thoughts are on that one. I am Danielle Fischl, the host of teen Beat, a podcast where I sit down with interesting people with just one goal to make them admit they were awkward teenagers. We all were, but some of us had to live those years out on television, experiencing puberty and childhood confusion in front of millions. So now is my chance to settle the score and force other celebrities to spill their guts and expose their upbringings funniest memories. The concept is simple, I gave you my childhood, it's time we hear yours. And this week I'm chatting with one of the funniest people in anything that involves a camera. Television, movies, cartoons, game shows, talk shows, award shows, after shows, probably dog shows. Anything she appears in or on is made infinitely better because of her involvement. You probably know her best as Shirley Bennett from the cult classic TV show Community, stealing scenes like some sort of charming pickpocket and leaving behind a path of memes like my favorite donning her passive aggressive smile with the catchphrase that's nice, or you know her as Helen from Drake and Josh, or her Emmy nominated appearance on The Black Ladies Sketch Show.

00:01:51
Speaker 2: How about from movies like Zootopia Too and.

00:01:54
Speaker 3: Somehow Avengers Endgame and here's some range. She's hosted The View and The Talking Dead, which probably have more in common than we'd like to think. She won Celebrity Family Feud but lost Celebrity Jeopardy, was signed to Michael Bivins and saying let's hear it for the boy well dressed as a bird. Plus, she is also the only person in history to have appeared on both Real Housewives of Atlanta and Critical Role Guys. She has done it all except appear on the teen Beat podcast with Daniel Fischl, and we are taking care of that today because underneath all that talent and before the incredible achievements, she might be hiding an awkward teenager ready to share embarrassment with the world. So please welcome to the podcast. This week's guest, Yvette Nicole Brown.

00:02:46
Speaker 4: Wow, that might be the best intro I have ever received in my entire life.

00:02:52
Speaker 2: Wow, I was like.

00:02:54
Speaker 5: Did I do that?

00:02:54
Speaker 2: I did that?

00:02:56
Speaker 6: Was?

00:02:56
Speaker 5: That was awesome?

00:02:57
Speaker 2: Isn't it so great to.

00:02:58
Speaker 3: Hear your accomplish read back to you in someone else's voice when you're just like not really fully prepared for it.

00:03:05
Speaker 2: It's like, Wow, look I did all.

00:03:07
Speaker 4: That, especially when it's someone like you who's climbed the mountain. So it's really nice that you took the time to do that and to do the research, and that was really lovely. Thanks well.

00:03:16
Speaker 3: I am so happy that you're here, so honored that you're joining me today. You have truly done just too much in your career in the best way possible. It's really impressive. I want to start with the East Coast family.

00:03:31
Speaker 2: Yes, you're Cleveland born.

00:03:34
Speaker 3: And bred and yet somehow entered the Philly centric universe of Michael Bivens's motown record label BIV ten. How old were you when you were signed to him and how did you get connected to a member of Bell Bivdevo.

00:03:47
Speaker 4: I was nineteen when I met him. I'd been a fan of New Addition since I was twelve when they first came out in eighty three.

00:03:53
Speaker 5: I was like that's it.

00:03:54
Speaker 4: That's my group, and they're up for the Rock Hall of Fame right now, So please vote, everybody, get out and vote for new edition. So I've been an Inny for Lifers what they call us, since I was twelve. But when I was nineteen, I was a sophomore in college and Michael was was, you know, talking about boys to men and another bad creation, and he was managing and I'm like, I'm a singer. He's got to manage me. He's got to manage me. So I kind of stalked him after a concert in Cleveland. Jeff Dison, his bodyguard, helped me find where they were staying, and I stalked him.

00:04:21
Speaker 5: I was like, mister Bimmins, massing for you. Mister Bimin's massing for you. Mind you. Michael was maybe three or four years older than me. Mister Bibvens, what am I daughters, I'm like two.

00:04:30
Speaker 4: So he finally let me sing for him, and the next day called me and said, I want to manage you. And then I was in the East Coast family. It was the most miraculous thing, but the craziest thing about my stir with Michael. So we go from fan of New Edition to sign by Michael and on biften Records, to working as Michael's assistant when I first moved to La to then playing his mother in the New Edition movie. So I literally it's a full circle.

00:04:54
Speaker 2: I have that in here that I was going to ask you. Didn't you playing his mother in the movie.

00:04:58
Speaker 3: Was that something like you guys had stayed in touch and you were like, hey, let's work together, or did that just want?

00:05:04
Speaker 4: I mean we stayed in touch, like me and Michael have been in touch since I first met him, but we weren't like, it's not like we're doing a movie of our life.

00:05:11
Speaker 5: Do you want to play my mot No?

00:05:12
Speaker 4: I auditioned to it at least twice with every other black woman of a certain age in Hollywood, and just so happened that that's the mom I got. We all auditioned for random mom right then they once they picked the mothers or the actresses they wanted, they then put us with the different New Edition member And I got Michael.

00:05:31
Speaker 2: From mister Bivens at nineteen to play in his mom.

00:05:35
Speaker 5: Mom and I'm still friends with his mom. I owe a call. His mom is a vibe. Shirley Bibvens is a vibe.

00:05:41
Speaker 6: He's a vibe.

00:05:43
Speaker 3: What a trajectory of friendship. I love that you were one of maybe two hundred and fifty young adults he signed at the time, including like we mentioned, another bad creation, Boys to Men and mc brains.

00:05:55
Speaker 2: Was was it as fun as it sounds?

00:05:59
Speaker 4: It was the most fun because you know, one you know, you grow up in your dreaming, like I always wanted to be a singer, even more than being an actress.

00:06:05
Speaker 5: I want to be a singer.

00:06:06
Speaker 4: So I'm already living like that dream just being around them. But it was also at the beginning of Boys to Men and Boys to Men became a super nova. This is before the Road, you know. So I got to watch them grow. And I just went to the amazing concert new Edition Boys to Men Tony Brax and go see it if you haven't seen, to be at that concert and know that everyone on that stage was my friend. Everyone on that stage I have their phone number or have a memory with them. And to be able to celebrate all of them as they celebrated each other. You know, I just did a film, a lifetime film with Tony Braxton. She's like my sister, so it was like, it's just amazing the full circle moments I've had.

00:06:43
Speaker 5: I know you've had a few, probably at your age. I'm the older. But even when you get you hold you have you cross forty yet?

00:06:49
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, forty, I'm going to be forty five.

00:06:50
Speaker 4: Oh my god, you're still a baby. But like, once you cross over forty, it's like your life plays in front of you a thousand different ways, either the children you're raising, or people you worked with, or you know, thirty years of a show, like all of that stuff, it just comes back in ways, and it's nice to still be alive to witness those wins.

00:07:09
Speaker 3: And to correct and like you said, to celebrate those accomplishments of your friends who it is rare to have a long career in the entertainment industry. So the fact that you can count on multiple hands the people and going look at you and look at you, and we're still.

00:07:28
Speaker 2: Doing it, it's such a great feeling.

00:07:31
Speaker 3: It's amazing. It's Yeah, my husband is a massive fan of the One for All music video you appear in.

00:07:38
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, and you know that is the most random thing I've ever heard.

00:07:42
Speaker 3: Oh really, Oh yeah, big big fan. What do you remember from filming that day.

00:07:47
Speaker 4: I remember that we shot it in Houston, and it's my first time going to Texas and it was so hot.

00:07:51
Speaker 5: I remember that.

00:07:52
Speaker 4: I remember just thinking that it was going to be a moment, and I think we all thought that this was our beginning. You know, it was not true for most of us, but we were like, this is it. We about to be shot out like a cannon. And one of my sharpest memories is I remember Mary J. Blige's first album, What's the four One one had just come out, so we were on set listening to Mary J. Blige and she and I think she's maybe one year older than me, but I remember going, gosh, she's amazing. Yeah, I was twenty she was twenty one, and I was like, oh, this is so great. She's gonna be a big star. Like I just have snapshots of moments like that. And then just getting to spend the whole day with everybody in the East Coast family was really wonderful. It was we did that day and then the day we were recording, and we traveled a bit and toured a bit with each other. So I have a lot of memories from being a teenager just chasing that dream Well.

00:08:39
Speaker 3: One of the very specific questions he wanted me to ask you is about Fruit Punch, the kid at the beginning.

00:08:46
Speaker 2: Of the song. He was dressed like Rkle and we never heard from him again.

00:08:50
Speaker 4: That was Ryan, That is Michael's cousin. His mom, Dianne Bivins, was like our road manager of the East Coast Family, and she actually is the first person outside of a high school teacher, that told me I should pursue acting because I auditioned and stuff while I was I started auditioning during the East Coast Family, but I was still in Cleveland, so it didn't stick. But she's the one that put that in me, besides my my acting teacher in high school, MSSC.

00:09:15
Speaker 5: Curry.

00:09:15
Speaker 4: She's the one that told me you could do this. So anyway, Ryan Fruit Punch was her son, and so I don't know that he ever had dreams of being a performer. I just think he was a cute kid. And Mike was like, come about this this manhole and you know, start the song.

00:09:31
Speaker 2: He's like, all right, done, done.

00:09:34
Speaker 3: Are there any fashion trends from this day or from the specific time and hip hop and R and B that you would like to see come back. I can give you some examples like airbrushed overalls with one strap off starter jackets, biker shorts are kind of back, like we already have that baggy designer leather jackets on women.

00:09:52
Speaker 2: Maybe even shoulder pads, anything you're fond of.

00:09:56
Speaker 4: I'm a fan of shoulder pads, a good fan. I'm a big fan of men's wear. I'm in a tie. I'm in a tie only video on a vest i like a few French rolls and a little tendrils. It's a lot of some hair things that we might or may not want to bring back, you know. And then also, I this wasn't in the video, but I always fly a flag for hair and pants.

00:10:16
Speaker 5: Oh I love it. I love it. Not not an empty hammer hammer pants. It's a little too much for me.

00:10:21
Speaker 4: When a low drop crotched. You know, it's a wonderful.

00:10:25
Speaker 3: Garment, absolutely, especially in like a nice thin fabricable.

00:10:30
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, linen.

00:10:31
Speaker 5: Silk, come on, come on there, it is there.

00:10:33
Speaker 2: It is so on community. Did you talk music with Donald Glover?

00:10:38
Speaker 3: I feel like he was heavily inspired by the era you grew.

00:10:42
Speaker 2: Up making music. And I was in a Donald Glover music video.

00:10:45
Speaker 5: I feel like I know this.

00:10:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was.

00:10:47
Speaker 3: I feel like I play I'm in like a dream sequence and one of his in one of his.

00:10:51
Speaker 5: Videos, like, I feel like I know this.

00:10:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, did you talk music with him?

00:10:54
Speaker 4: I feel like you would have had a crush when you was a kid too, So I think that's well.

00:10:57
Speaker 3: Did he think maybe we I ended up in the video because he had?

00:11:00
Speaker 5: I think you did. I think that's how it worked out.

00:11:03
Speaker 4: We did. We? You know, a lot of us on the show are musical. Kim Jung actually has a beautiful voice. I don't know if people know this about Ken Jong. He's an amazing singer, and I think and he plays panel too, So we all had a lot of conversations. Donald was the most efficient user of time on the community set.

00:11:20
Speaker 5: He created Atlanta.

00:11:21
Speaker 4: On off time, on community he created he became Childish Gambino.

00:11:25
Speaker 5: At our community table, we had the.

00:11:27
Speaker 4: Wu Tang I don't know what it was, called the Wu Tang aggregator or Wu Tang. It was this thing, this Wu Tang clan thing where you could find your Wu Tang name by using this little whatever.

00:11:37
Speaker 5: This thing was.

00:11:38
Speaker 4: So we all got our names, and Donald's was childish Cambino. That's how he became childish Cambino happened at the table. We'd have a break and he'd be with his computer doing beats. Like he's always been just an efficient user of time. Yeah, you know how they say in Hamilton, you know, why do you write like you're running out of time? Donald does everything like he's running out of time. So we did talk about it, but it was like something he was just doing.

00:12:01
Speaker 2: You know what I mean, he was just constantly creating.

00:12:03
Speaker 4: He's always creating. He's one of I've said this in other interviews, but he's one of the most creative people I've ever met. Never met Michael Jackson, never met Prince so I can't speak on their level of creativity. But Donald can do everything creative. He can bake, he can dance, he can draw, he can knit, he can knit. Wow, he can dance. He does comedy, he writes, he sings, he he raps like he literally anything creative he can put his hand to and make it magic. So we saw that he would come in go I wrote this song, and it'd be a song that ended up on his album Camp Like he's just he's a.

00:12:33
Speaker 3: Beast, right, Yeah, I had a wonderful time with him. It was clapping for the wrong reasons is the name of the video that I was in, And uh yeah, I remember also thinking that day, Wow, he never really sits. He doesn't he doesn't relax because you know, when I was needed, I was there, and then when I wasn't needed, I was just like relaxing, and he when he was not needed in front, he was on something, he was working on something, he was writing something, he was just he was.

00:13:02
Speaker 2: Go, go go.

00:13:03
Speaker 3: But boy, it was a really cool experience for me to see him in action.

00:13:07
Speaker 6: I love that he's a sweetheart.

00:13:20
Speaker 3: We saw each other recently, you and I both freaking out at a Janet Jackson concert, and I don't know about you, but I was absolutely blown away by how great she still is.

00:13:34
Speaker 4: Listen, I love her so much. And this is not news to anyone that's ever heard me talk about Janet like she's my number one, Like I think she's just First of all, she's very kind. I'm blessed to say that we're friends now. She's very kind, very loving, very supportive, very accessible. And then that's just her as a human being. But then you moved to her as an artist and the fact that she has perfect pitch, the fact that she can stack vocals like her other stacked vocals.

00:14:02
Speaker 5: She's a beast in the studio.

00:14:03
Speaker 4: Jimmy jam has told me stories of working with her and how amazing it is, and she's humble. Yeah, and she just regular, you know, she's just she's just the best. And she's you know, coming up on sixty and you would do sixty where that woman got the knee ware at the knees of a thirty five year old, she'd be the way she dances, my lord.

00:14:23
Speaker 2: It was. It was really incredible.

00:14:24
Speaker 3: I mean I went in having really no expectations because I didn't know, like when was the last time I had seen her perform, And literally just kept looking around like is this Relia?

00:14:34
Speaker 2: And she sang the entire time, the entire time.

00:14:39
Speaker 3: I kept thinking, when are they gonna put When is she gonna sit down to take a break?

00:14:43
Speaker 5: Nope, saying the entire time Mike was on.

00:14:45
Speaker 3: Mike was on the entire time, danced the entire time, up and down the stage the entire time, not even super long wardrobe changes, just.

00:14:54
Speaker 2: She was just moving.

00:14:55
Speaker 5: She gave us a show.

00:14:57
Speaker 2: She really did.

00:14:58
Speaker 3: She really did who were your favorite singers and rappers growing up? I know you mentioned Janet's your number one, So who are ausition?

00:15:05
Speaker 4: Okay, Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney, Houston. I can't believe Prince, Michael Jackson and Whitney being gone. I just don't even know where to file that. And then I'm you grew up in the seventies and the eighties, so I'm a you know, I like some seventies R and B. I like some Shallamar, some dbars switch, you know, like when people were really playing instruments and really singing heat Wave, earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, Luther Van dross Aker, I mean I could. My R and B list is long. And then I also love like Dolly Parton. She's one of my favorites. Ronnie Millsap. I used to love country back when I was a kid too, so it's everywhere. And then my brother loved Kiss, so I grew up listening to Kiss and loving Kiss.

00:15:42
Speaker 6: So I'm across.

00:15:43
Speaker 5: I'm all across the.

00:15:44
Speaker 2: Border, You're all across the genres. Yeah, you love it all.

00:15:47
Speaker 3: What was high school like for you? Were you were you an entertainer at your school?

00:15:53
Speaker 4: You know, I think I was Junior High was rough, and when I talk about my embarrassment, it's gonna be a doozy from the seventh grade. But by the time I got to tenth grade and I had my braces and figured out my acne cream, I think I found a sweet spot where I was not the most popular, but I also was no longer the outcast.

00:16:12
Speaker 2: Everyone was right sweet spot. Nobody's paying any attention.

00:16:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm just listen. I'm the same way on red carpets. Now, when I get dressed for a red carpet, I'm not trying to be best dressed.

00:16:21
Speaker 5: Don't want to be worst dressed. I want to be right in the middle.

00:16:23
Speaker 4: Just ignore, just to you.

00:16:25
Speaker 3: Want to give you a good interview, but nothing too clickbaitableaven nothing.

00:16:31
Speaker 4: So I got to that sweet spot. And I think the reason I bodied that lane so well is that I have such a love for other people.

00:16:37
Speaker 5: So throughout school.

00:16:38
Speaker 4: I collected all the other misfits and the underdogs. Everybody could sit with me, everybody could hang with me. So by the time I graduated, I knew everybody. You know, And that's that's the best way I think to go through life. I I as a kid. After what I tell the story of when I was in junior high I never understood who got to decide who was popular, Like, why did you get to say that you matter and I don't matter? Why do you get to say that they don't matter?

00:17:03
Speaker 5: What you know?

00:17:04
Speaker 4: I'm not saying that you're not a great person, but why do you have to be greater than me? Why do you have to make me feel bad? So I decided I'm not I don't believe you.

00:17:13
Speaker 2: Oh you love that.

00:17:14
Speaker 5: You can say I'm not cool or I'm not whatever. I don't believe you.

00:17:17
Speaker 4: I think I'm great, and I think these people with me are great and we're gonna go be great. And if you want to come be great with this, you can, but you're not gonna make us feel bad about who we are because you've decided that we're not cute enough, tall enough, clear skinned enough, straight to you. Whatever the thing is, I've never understood that. I've never liked it, never understood it.

00:17:35
Speaker 3: I feel very much the same way, But it is it really, I think just comes from such a scarcity mindset.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: It's when people feel as though there's.

00:17:45
Speaker 3: Only one spot and if someone's gonna claim it. It's gonna be me and I'm gonna fight everyone else away from the one spot, and I I thankfully don't. I just don't think that in that way, and obviously neither do you. So tell me about junior high. Junior High I think is rough across the board, because I also did not have lovely junior high experiences.

00:18:08
Speaker 2: So what was junior high like for you?

00:18:10
Speaker 5: Okay, well, let me say this. First.

00:18:12
Speaker 4: I grew up in East Cleveland, which is the hood, and I'm proudly from the hood.

00:18:15
Speaker 5: And then I moved.

00:18:16
Speaker 4: My mom wanted a better life for us, so we moved to the suburbs. So it was like going from you know, the inner city to like Beverly Hills. Right, we didn't have the Beverly Hills money, so we were still in like wrangler jeans and hand me downs, but we were in.

00:18:28
Speaker 5: A better school system.

00:18:29
Speaker 4: So it was culture shock for me getting there and seeing these girls with their hair freshly pressed, and they're in Jordan ash and Gloria Vanderbilt jean's, and you know, I'm in my brother's hand me down wranglers, you know, or my cousin's hand me downs. So automatically walking in I was targeted, like one of these things is not like the other, right. And so when I was when I was in seventh grade, it was this guy I really liked. I thought he was a cue thing I've ever seen. Now I will not say his name because I do still know him. Okay, I don't wont say his name. But I thought he was great. And there was a girl friend of mine. She's now a friend, but she was really mean to me on this particular day. She used to date this guy date.

00:19:04
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, they once looked at each other across the across the.

00:19:10
Speaker 4: They once held hands at reason, but she used to date them, and they had broken up, and she knew that. I thought he was super duper cute. And so one day she came up to me and she said, so and SO likes you And I said no. She said, yeah, he likes you, and I think you should write him a note and ask him if he likes you too, and you should give it to him tomorrow. And I was like, oh, my god, he likes me like I never thought he would like me. So I'm talking to my friends and they're like, okay, well you should wear this shirt and one of my friends let me borrow her. One of my friends let me borrow her little ear rings. I remember I had this this black and white I'll never forget the outfit, black and white striped shirt with these poof it was the eighties, yes, right. And she gave me these spot these plastic spiral earrings that were also black and white.

00:19:53
Speaker 5: So I'm ready.

00:19:53
Speaker 4: I got the outfit. Penmanship is on point. I'm writing the note dear so and so I I really like you too, you know, would you like my number? I don't even know what I put the note. It's a blur because it was so traumatic. So I get to school and I have lunch. I either had lunch first or study hall first. I had lunch first, then study all. So I go to lunch and he also has lunch first and then study all. He's there, heus gorgeous, cross the room.

00:20:16
Speaker 5: It's my moment. So I walk up.

00:20:18
Speaker 4: He's talking to his friends.

00:20:19
Speaker 6: I walk up.

00:20:19
Speaker 4: I give him the note, Danielle like, give them the note listeners, And he said, what's this? And I said, and he didn't say it, like, what's this?

00:20:26
Speaker 5: He said what's this? And I said, you know, oh.

00:20:31
Speaker 3: It looks so confident she really Never for a second did you think you think maybe she's doing something to screw me over?

00:20:37
Speaker 4: Oh no, I thought, this is this is a lovely thing she's doing. She sees the love is supposed to happen, and she's just about to happen. So he opened the note in front of me. You read the note. He laughed at the note. He showed the note to the friends with him, and then he passed the note around the lunch room. And the bottom line was, how dare she think that I whatever? So I, of course am face on the ground.

00:21:06
Speaker 5: I scurry out of there. I've never scurried in my life, but I scurried, scurried that.

00:21:10
Speaker 4: I scurried out of there, and I got to the bathroom because I didn't want to go to study hall too. I went to the bathroom, pulled my feet up on the on this this things locked the door in the stall, just like, okay, what just happened? Like I couldn't I was twelve. I couldn't process that level of cruelty. I did not understand, because again, I'm the one that's like everybody can sit with me, So I don't understand going out of your way to.

00:21:30
Speaker 5: Harm I've never understood.

00:21:33
Speaker 4: So I'm in there and then people are coming in, girls are coming in, and the only topic is me.

00:21:38
Speaker 3: Everyone, And because your feed are up, they don't even know you're there, so they care.

00:21:44
Speaker 2: They're just still talking about you here and all.

00:21:46
Speaker 4: Can you believe that was dumb enough to think blah blah blah, just oh my god, he would never like it.

00:21:50
Speaker 5: I can't believe. I die.

00:21:51
Speaker 4: I'm so embarrassed for her. So I didn't have to go to study hall because lunch is over, I have to go to study hall check in. I get in study hall and I just put my head down on my desk and I'm just like, I'm crying.

00:22:01
Speaker 5: It's bad.

00:22:02
Speaker 4: The girl that did this to me comes and sits in front of me, and she leans down and she goes, I can't believe you thought he would ever like you? How dumb are you? When I tell you, I was like, I do know that evil exists. And really, to this day, I'm grateful because I think now, had I not had that lesson of how dark and mean people could be, I probably would have been hurt a lot more in life. But learning that at twelve taught me that everybody smiling in your face is not for you.

00:22:34
Speaker 5: Now.

00:22:36
Speaker 4: She and I life went on, And this is one thing I know about karma and how fair God is. As life went on. Everything in life she wanted, I got hm everything. I mean when we got to high school, a guy she liked liked me. The sorority I joined, she wanted to join. She didn't get it that sorority. She loves. A lot of the artists that I love that I'm now friends were her favorite artist I ever met them. Like it's like it's almost like God was like, you gonna do something this nasty that somebody don't bother nobody.

00:23:07
Speaker 5: You need to know. You need to know loss through her.

00:23:12
Speaker 4: You now need to experience loss through someone you tried to take down. And she and I are friends now, Like she's lovely. I think it was just the a child doing something that was unkind, and maybe she had been treated unkind maybe so, I don't know the reason, but we're friends now. I consider her friend and I've forgiven her thirty years ago, but that moment will stay with me the rest of my life. And thankfully, thankfully.

00:23:40
Speaker 3: Yes, a rat that is rough. Yeah, and to and you're friends with the guy still too, the guy.

00:23:48
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say friends, but I know him. He now has reached out a few times because he has a magazine and he's reached out now he wants something from you made to do his magazine.

00:23:57
Speaker 5: So you know, and I'm thinking, not me, what why would you want?

00:24:01
Speaker 3: You know, you made it very clear I should never think that you would want something to me, right.

00:24:10
Speaker 4: So you know, and I'm still kind to people like I'm still you know, if he hears this story any may you know, he may not even remember because it was so it was nothing to them, It was everything to me.

00:24:23
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:24:24
Speaker 3: I have a memory of the guy that I liked in junior high who was I was in sixth grade. He was in eighth grade, and he was so cute and I thought, I truly just thought, oh my gosh. And he was he was cool and I wasn't exactly cool, and I just I thought, oh my gosh.

00:24:43
Speaker 2: This I just kept every day.

00:24:45
Speaker 3: Was me daydreaming about how it was going to turn out, that we were going to end up being together. Absolutely, And then in my theater class there was a kid who had I think the best way of describing it is probably I don't know what he would be diagnosed with today or whether or not he had been diagnosed with anything at the time, but he was definitely neurodivergent and had some learning disabilities. And I saw the guy I have a crush on. It was another class he had done, like a big science project, like something with cardboard, you know, that opened up, and he brought it into the theater and the guy I had a crush on asked to see it, and the friend opened it up and was kind of showing it off and was very proud of it, and the guy I had a crush on just started laughing at him and pointing at it and talking about how stupid he was. And wow, my friend closed it and was then embarrassed that he had been so proud to share it and put it down on the floor, and then he went up on stage to do what he needed to do with theater, and the kid I had a crush on stomped do you know? His project? And from that moment on, I was never able to see that guy as cute ever he was, he.

00:26:09
Speaker 2: Was now hideous.

00:26:11
Speaker 3: And I think I was on stage at the time with and he saw it happening, and he was.

00:26:17
Speaker 2: Like oh, and I lost it. I became like it Oh yeah, I.

00:26:23
Speaker 3: Was like, how dare you that's not yours? Like just fully freaked out and yeah. So the thing that reminded me of that story was when you said, you know this person, this woman, this girl who you had thought was your friend so much so it never even occurred to you that she could have been doing something like even when he was like, what's this, you were like, of course, you know, yeah, you know what this is. And then when she came in and just showed you that evil, that's it was like, one, take the mask off and guess what I am.

00:26:59
Speaker 2: I'm so great full. Thank you. Please everyone wearing that kind of mask, please don't reveal it.

00:27:05
Speaker 3: Take it off, please, And no matter what the outcome is, we're going to be better off seeing you.

00:27:11
Speaker 4: I I want to just hearing your story. Where does that come from in a child? How does a child know to destroy a spirit like that, to wings like that? Like I am so grateful, Like when I tell people when someone does something atrocious and I don't understand, I'm so grateful.

00:27:27
Speaker 5: I don't understand.

00:27:27
Speaker 4: I'm so grateful that what is within me does not vibrate at the same.

00:27:31
Speaker 5: Level of that level of cruelty. That's horrible.

00:27:35
Speaker 2: Yeah, couldn't agree with you more, couldn't agree with you more horrible. Did you have a high school sweetheart?

00:27:53
Speaker 5: I did?

00:27:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did, Alan White. We're still friends, oh all these years?

00:28:00
Speaker 2: Like how many friends you have still from this time of your life?

00:28:03
Speaker 4: I keep them, baby, If I get a good one, I keep them, you know, And I feel like first love, you got it. If you can they haven't done something completely destructive, you should hold on because that's they have a cheak code for you that no one else does. And I remember, even for years because Allen got married really young. I got married a year ago, so I got married very late, congratulations, And he got married really young. So through the years we would talk every year on our birthdays. Through the years, I was just like, why is there nobody for me? And he used to always say, said he that you you're not a regular chick. So you're going to require a guy that's not a regular dude. So you're gonna meet twenty guys in a year. Maybe one would be the right fit for you, And I suggest you wait for who that guy is only someone that knew me from the time I was sixteen, could say that to me at twenty five or at thirty five and have it resonate, you know what I mean. So, yeah, if I've got I got a set of girlfriends from high school and middle school that I'm still cool with. I mean, it's just good friends, are not They don't were on trees. So if you get a good one, you.

00:29:03
Speaker 5: Hold on, hold on.

00:29:05
Speaker 3: All of my best friends are still from sixth grade. We were We went from junior high straight through high school.

00:29:12
Speaker 2: There's about twelve of us. We're all still in touch.

00:29:15
Speaker 3: Of course, some of us are closer to others, like everybody's got their best friend, but we are still in touch as a group, get together for all of our weddings and birth of children and you know, random girls night. Absolutely, So I couldn't agree with you more about needing to hold on to good ones because they are few and far.

00:29:34
Speaker 5: Between, aren't they aren't they?

00:29:36
Speaker 2: You went to high school with our Cineo Hall, which.

00:29:40
Speaker 5: I feel like a few years apart.

00:29:42
Speaker 2: Okay, the same high school.

00:29:44
Speaker 5: As he's got me by a few years.

00:29:46
Speaker 3: But yeah, okay, Well, because I went to the same high school as the Menendez brothers, so it's it doesn't feel as inspirational, you know.

00:29:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, definitely not.

00:29:59
Speaker 3: Did you love of talk shows growing up because you're so good at them? I feel like you only get that skill when you have been paying attention since you were a kid.

00:30:09
Speaker 4: Absolutely, And I want to take time to give you your flowers. You are really good at this, kiddo. This is a delightful conversation. And when you're having a conversation, it feels like when you're on a podcast or an interview, and it feels like a conversation. Yeah, got an interview. That's a good interviewer. You're doing a great job. So I want to make sure I say, cue, that's so sweet, you're no baby.

00:30:28
Speaker 5: It's so good, so good. I'm glad you're in this space.

00:30:30
Speaker 4: But yeah, I grew up watching Oprah, Phil Donahue, Sally, Jesse Rafael, I loved Jenny Jones, Ricky Lake. I can name all of them because I like people and a talk show was a place where you get to find out about people. So I was watching more to see what's going on in people's lives, and you know, see how how life unfolds. Is a young person, and I think during that I like wax On, wax offt Paint the fence and Karate Kid. I was learning how to do it and the way you do it well. And this is why you do it well. You have to be interested and you have to want to know the ones that excel at talk show hosting because I feel like I'm a kindisseur of talk show host at this Sam. Yes, if they care more about themselves and this is my moment to shine, it's not gonna be a good show. If someone wants to provide a space in a spotlight for other people to shine, that's gonna be a show you want.

00:31:23
Speaker 5: To watch every single day. Yep, every time O day.

00:31:26
Speaker 4: So yeah, So that's I think that's the secret sauce, and it's not I think sometimes they feel like you have to be a famous person to do it. Forgetting that Oprah wasn't famous when she got her show. Sally Jesse Rafael wasn't famous when she got her show. Doing the show well is what made them famous. So find people that like people that are honest about their own lives, and then you create a show around that person and you're going to have a hit.

00:31:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was the biggest Oprah fan. I watched every single episode. I loved it, and Oprah ended up being one of the reasons. Her show ended up being one of the reasons I went to college late in life for psychology. I you know, Boy Meets World ended in two thousand and I was nineteen and decided not to go to school at that time.

00:32:10
Speaker 2: And then the way.

00:32:11
Speaker 3: The industry works, I had a lot of years of struggling and not sure what I was going to do and didn't work for a long time, and eventually got to be about twenty six years old and realized, I've been living off of savings that I made as a teenager, and I have to work, but I may not ever get hired again, and so what else do I know how to do?

00:32:29
Speaker 2: What do I want to do? And I was watching an episode.

00:32:32
Speaker 3: Of Oprah where she interviewed a marriage and family therapist who specialized in children of divorce. Wow, And it was the most interesting, fascinating, heart wrenching and also this feeling.

00:32:50
Speaker 2: Of that's someone who's really of service.

00:32:54
Speaker 4: Wow.

00:32:54
Speaker 2: And I was like, I want to do that.

00:32:56
Speaker 3: I want to be And I went to school for psychology and then got accepted for my master's degree at Chapman University, and I.

00:33:06
Speaker 2: Was just that's it, that's it, that's what I'm going to do.

00:33:10
Speaker 3: And then the opportunity to do a Girl Meets World came about in twenty fourteen, and I was likes, Girl Meets World once in a lifetime opportunity.

00:33:20
Speaker 2: I can get my master's later.

00:33:21
Speaker 3: And I still I still maintain I will eventually have my masters and will use it in some way of being of service. But I still every time I think about how I ended up going to school for psychology, which was such an amazing experience, I think that's only because of Oprah.

00:33:36
Speaker 4: But also this is of service, Danielle. So you need to realize that every time you're speaking and using what you learned, you don't have to. Your psychiatry skill is not just used in a room with a couch and someone talking to you.

00:33:49
Speaker 5: You're using it now. You're using it when you talk to people.

00:33:52
Speaker 4: You're using it when you support people and encourage people, or you're there for someone when they're down.

00:33:56
Speaker 5: You're using it.

00:33:57
Speaker 4: So, yes, get your master's if that's what you want to do, But do not think that you didn't complete the mission, because you did, and you might have did it so because the Lord knew where you were going to be ultimately, so he needed you to get that undergrad degree so that you're ready to do this because this is psychology.

00:34:11
Speaker 5: Every time you talk to somebody.

00:34:13
Speaker 3: Well, thank you, I appreciate it. I did not mean to turn this into a therapy session. You're sorry.

00:34:18
Speaker 5: No, I think it's great.

00:34:19
Speaker 4: But I think sometimes we have these things on the list and we don't even realize. Again going to wax On wax Off, you have the skill, you're doing the job. You're in the space you're supposed to be in, even if it looks a little different. Like I always thought that i'd be a teacher. I thought I was going to be an elementary school teacher. I love five and six year olds first grade, and I'm a teacher, you know what I mean. Everything I do is trying to lead people to something that can make them better and encouraging people to be better. So I'm using I'm doing it in a different space. It's not in a classroom, but it is what I do.

00:34:49
Speaker 3: Yes, Yes, And you're leading by example every single time you open your mouth. You have guest hosted what I'm calling the Triple Crown, the View, the Talk, and the Real. Let's say there was going to be a steel cage match between the hosts, which show would win.

00:35:09
Speaker 5: Oh that's a good question. It also depends on which set of view.

00:35:14
Speaker 3: Let's go with Whoopy, Joy, Sonny and Anna Navarro.

00:35:20
Speaker 4: Oh well, I gotta go with with with those four women over now, I was gonna say that for anyone, I was going to say the Real, because Lonnie Love could go, Jeannie, Mike could go, and Adrin could go. I think I think I think Tamara's too much of a lady. She would not involve herself in the in the cage match.

00:35:38
Speaker 5: The other three.

00:35:39
Speaker 4: Would tie to tie the hair up and put some vaseline on and get it done. But I think that Anna, Whoopy, Sonny, and Joy, they have that age behind them with they't no kind.

00:35:48
Speaker 5: Of sweep that leg.

00:35:50
Speaker 4: So I feel like I gotta go with the View legs. I think that they would literally wipe the floor.

00:35:55
Speaker 3: Okay, listen, I am not gonna argue with you for sure.

00:36:00
Speaker 2: Listen.

00:36:00
Speaker 3: If I can sneak any more Bell Bivdevo Talk onto my podcast, I am going to do it. So Evett will be back with me on Friday for a bonus episode of teen Beat, where we will chat some more and hear a listener's embarrassing childhood story in the form of a voice memo. So subscribe to the dedicated teen beatfeed. In that way, you will never miss another episode. Plus we're looking for more tales of teenage terror from you, so email a voice memo somewhere in the one to two minute range to Teenbeatpod at gmail dot com and you might hear yourself on an upcoming show. Teenbeat is an iHeart podcast produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel, Executive producers Jensen Karp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge of production Danielle Romo, producer and editor Tara Sudboch. The theme song is by mar Coppus. Yes that Mark Coppus. Follow us on Instagram at Teenbeatpod.