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Episode 63: Finding Your Voice and Trusting it with Antoine L. Smith
140 Plays5 years ago
There is a lot that happens between following your dreams and living your dreams. It is rarely a straight path, and there will always be challenges along the way.
That’s why we are so glad to share our conversation with Antoine L. Smith in this episode, who talks with us about overcoming adversity and finding the never-ever straight path to success in his field. We’ll ask some big questions, like: How do you do what you love, earn a living, and stay true to yourself? We talk about the big mentors in his life, and how he went from culinary school graduation to performing as Big Bird. There’s a lot to explore here!
Having performed in Broadway shows from Cats to The Color Purple, Antoine L. Smith is just getting started. Antoine went to high school with Phillip, where they performed on the same (championship!!) dance team. Antoine then followed his dream of making it on Broadway. He lives in New York City and is an Emmy award-winning Broadway, television, and voiceover actor.
Find him on Instagram: @antoinelsmith32
what you will learn in this episode:- How to draw strength during times of adversity
- Staying true to yourself and your ideals while making money doing what you love
- The real cost of doing business in creative work like theater
- Bringing the same energy to a task day after day
- How to keep going after you’ve made a mistake
- Ways of building residual income in creative work
- Aligning residual income with your gifts
- The importance of just being good to people
- The crucial role of mentorship: being a mentor and paying attention to those who mentor you
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Transcript
Defining an Uncommon Life
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit.
The Uncommon Life Project Podcast's Mission
00:00:11
Speaker
Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
a life worth celebrating and savoring.
Meet the Hosts: Brian and Philip
00:00:30
Speaker
Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey. Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Life Project. I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. And I am Brian Dewhurst. Thanks for tuning in. You know, if you've been a part of the show or you're just tuning in, we're grateful that you're here.
Empowering Through Finance
00:00:48
Speaker
Brian and I are financial advisors that try to put you
00:00:51
Speaker
in charge of your finances and make you your best asset and so this podcast is highlighting many people either that are on this uncommon life journey or they will give you some tips and tricks to help you on your own uncommon journey.
00:01:07
Speaker
Today, we are talking to an awesome guest and we're going to kind of dissect exactly how he got on his uncommon path.
Guest Introduction: Antoine L. Smith
00:01:17
Speaker
I cannot wait to get this man on the show. And we've got a history. This guy and I, I feel like some secrets are going to come out here.
00:01:26
Speaker
No, we might get it on. Let's get the bio on. Let's get on. All right. This is maybe one of my bigger bios I've ever done. So I don't want to screw this up. All right. Born in Gary, Indiana, lived in Sioux City, Iowa with the one and only Philip Ramsey.
00:01:42
Speaker
and now currently residing in New York City. Antoine L. Smith, Emmy Award winning Broadway and television actor and voice over extraordinaire. Please welcome him to the show, everyone. Antoine. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Voice of an angel. Voice of an angel. The Golden Pipes himself. Antoine L. Smith. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Where do we start? I want to do this. This is what I want to do. I kind of thought about this earlier.
00:02:12
Speaker
One, you and I have a lot of history. We went to high school together. But what I want you to say is the first time you walked on that Broadway stage, what was going through your head?
Antoine's Broadway Debut Experience
00:02:25
Speaker
Oh, wow. You know, it's so funny that July 5th, which is coming up, will be the the day the day that I made my Broadway debut. So after wanting it for so, so long and then
00:02:41
Speaker
Finally getting it there's a there's a moment of disbelief there's there's a moment of humbleness there's a moment of gratitude just all those feelings all coming together at one time. A lot of people would like to think that when you first step on a stage or into to that job wanted for so long that you just like.
00:03:03
Speaker
Yes, yes, yes. And of course, inside there is that, but also there's like, oh my God, I'm so nervous. I finally made it. I'm up here with people that I've looked up to my entire life. I've made it to the goal of everything that I've ever done.
00:03:18
Speaker
There were moments that I remember. There are moments that I don't remember, but I know that I made it through that day. But just to be on that stage just brought so much joy, so much honor to my family because my parents, they sacrificed so much for me and my brother to achieve our dreams and to finally achieve them.
00:03:40
Speaker
and to do that for them, it was amazing. It still gives me chills to this day. Everything that I do to this day, I try to do it to honor them the best of me.
00:03:50
Speaker
Sure. That's great. I love the start of this. So you want to then pull back here and like I walk through your story of how you got to that point.
Antoine's High School Performance Beginnings
00:04:02
Speaker
And for me, like this is really exciting because I mean, I've witnessed this of this, this dream of yours when it was just a, let's just say a mustard seed, if we will. And then I've also seen you sing. I've seen you perform. I've been next to you performing.
00:04:23
Speaker
We've had a dancer on and Brian kind of alluded that I can wiggle, but not to the championship level that you and I know about that.
00:04:36
Speaker
You know, I love starting the story with that when you walk out on the stage because I've run a marathon and in the sacrifices that you've had to do, the training you've had to do to get up that point, I remember taking that first step and almost like bursting into tears, like. Right.
00:04:52
Speaker
There is something about setting out and achieving and sacrificing and then getting to this level that is so rewarding and you wouldn't ever have any other way. And I bet you like just the experiences you've had, even the bad experiences, the times that you've fallen flat on your face have created Antoine L. Smith. So now that you are on Broadway and you are a
00:05:18
Speaker
a pinnacle of what's going on in New York and people are looking to you as a beacon, not only from Sioux City where I met you, but in New York. You are doing it, brother. How did you start down this path and when did it start turning into like, I'm going to make this professional, hang on. How far do you want to go back?
00:05:41
Speaker
Let's just start in high school where Philip Ramsey and I met. We were both on the West High School dance team, dance squad, I don't know, depends on what you want to call it. Championship, all male dance squad, come on ride that train train.
00:06:03
Speaker
So I want to say that that I truly got serious about doing what I wanted to do in high school and being a part of such an amazing community of our dance squad and having that family at school as well as at home. I mean, we
00:06:25
Speaker
We were together all the time. We would get to school for rehearsal at 5.45 in the morning. People have no idea. And we would rehearse for like three hours before school even started. Then we would have the school day and then people that did sports like Phil, I wasn't doing sports, but you know, to then stay after school to do sports and all that. But anyway, I just say that to say, uh,
00:06:46
Speaker
My dream pretty much started coming to fruition in high school. I was on the dance team. I was in the choir. I sang. I mean, sometimes people's strong suits are not sports, are not politics. Sometimes you're supposed to be an artist. And that's just as awesome.
00:07:04
Speaker
So, um, you know, and I think it's funny because when I say that people like, Hey, it was on the dance team, they're like, Oh boy. Like they don't understand what it was. This was serious. Yes. Right. Like we're going to it. And, and I remember the first time, I mean, I was a freshman. They came to us and said, Hey, we want to have an dance squad.
00:07:26
Speaker
Up to that point, the whole state, the whole deal, it was like, get your pom-poms out and let's shake your butt and people are going to cheer. And I remember they were like, no, we're taking this to the next level. Do you want to do it? And as a freshman, I didn't really know what we're getting into.
00:07:44
Speaker
And at this point they had like a co-ed dance team and they would throttle. They would go to this competition and just throttle people. Like people would never even know, oh my goodness, there's trampolines and there's fire. And it was a different level.
00:08:00
Speaker
I remember them asking us, hey, do you want to do an all-male dance squad? And Antoine, there was a couple people that were instrumental in my life, but Antoine Smith was one of those. There was another guy named Jeff Olerandami. Oh, Jeff. And so Jeff Olerandami was a flipper, but Antoine Smith, Jeff Olerandami and I, man, we... We were the three. We were the three.
00:08:23
Speaker
We were in the three. What were the names on our jerseys? I can't even remember. Remember we had those jerseys? I don't know. But when you say we were practicing, we would get there five o'clock in the morning every day, and then our first period of our school was dance squad. Right.
00:08:44
Speaker
And we weren't talking about like 25 dance routines. We were doing two, all-male and co-ed. That's all we would do. And I remember going to the state and thinking like, okay, are we going to be good? Are we not going to be good? And just to kind of go back to what you said as you practiced and sacrificed,
00:09:07
Speaker
going out on that stage and I remember Antoine I don't know if you probably remember this is probably your life now but I remember not even remembering the dance like uh-oh like walking out on that stage no idea what the first like move was and it being so loud like I can't even hear myself think right and performing I mean it was it was dynamic absolutely
00:09:31
Speaker
And so anyway, so that's where we started. And I think that it really did shape who I was because of the sacrifices that we had to commit to at the early hours and then just being good at one thing. We didn't have to be great at everything. We didn't need to be good at one thing. And so
00:09:48
Speaker
So then that I think also shaped you. And I remember you singing. I remember you doing the national anthems. And you were always got an amazing voice. I remember my parents and I went to go see you at church because you had a solo and we were like, oh, we're doing that. Oh Zion. Oh Mount Zion. Oh Mount Zion. Yes.
00:10:07
Speaker
But then, so let's talk through more of that. And then now you start and get out of Sioux City and you're going to go do the deal, but it's not like you get a Broadway right
Career Journey: From Opera to Broadway
00:10:17
Speaker
away. No, no, no. I actually went to the University of South Dakota for classical voice because I was planning to be an opera singer, but
00:10:26
Speaker
that did not happen. To be an opera singer in the United States as a black man is pretty hard. So most careers that you can actually make a living off of happen in Europe. And I wasn't trying to, you know,
00:10:43
Speaker
in Europe. But so after the University of South Dakota, I went to Denver for a little while, you know, just just living, actually. And once I returned back from Denver, I decided that I wanted to go to culinary school. So I went DMACC,
00:11:06
Speaker
college for culinary school. Hey, they have a good color. It's an amazing. Right. Right. Was when I went, it was one of the top 50 culinary programs in the United States of America. So I completed that program and literally, and I kid you not, three weeks after I graduated from culinary school, I joined the national tour of Sesame Street where I played Big Bird.
00:11:33
Speaker
for two and a half years like a lot of people don't know that but I'm doing information right now. So I played Big Bird for two and a half years and after that I moved to New York City in December of 2007 after which I joined the Broadway tour of Cats.
00:11:52
Speaker
for a full year. After returning back from Cats, I think I did a bunch of regional theater. And then I eventually made my Broadway debut July 5th of 2011. So it was a journey to get there. But once I got there, I was able to look back and say, man, Antoine, you
00:12:15
Speaker
you really had a journey in life to get where you are. So it's that much rewarding once you actually make it there. So I'll keep going. So July 5th, 2011, I made my Broadway debut in Memphis, the musical, Tony Award winning best Broadway musical for that show.
00:12:36
Speaker
It's amazing. It's an amazing story, amazing musical. So, so awesome. If you guys don't know, Google it or go to YouTube. It's amazing. So in 2013, I joined the Broadway National Tour of Cinderella. I went out and did that for a year. And then in 2013,
00:12:58
Speaker
15 i joined the broadway company of the color purple revival starring jennifer hudson oh grammy and oscar award-winning jennifer hudson uh two-time oscar nominee tony grammy emmy winner cynthia arivo
00:13:13
Speaker
Tony Award nominee, Danielle Brooks. I mean, this cast was absolutely unbelievable. That experience was life changing, to say the least. How do you get in front of these things? Like, do you have an agent? Oh, yeah, I have an agent. I have a theater agent, I have a television agent, and I have a voiceover agent. Wow. All of, yeah.
00:13:38
Speaker
all of those ages, and they're amazing. DDO artist agency, if anybody's interested. So I did The Color Purple for a year. That show lasted for a year. Then I went on to do Miss Saigon on Broadway. Then I went on to do Carousel on Broadway. And now I will be doing MJ the Musical. OK.
00:14:02
Speaker
Now we're talking. Now we're talking. All right. I've spent, I can't tell you how many car rides I've spent with Phillip. He has actually amazing DJ skills too, by the way, if your wedding is coming up post COVID, but MJ is his, is his number one.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, I know my spirit animal and we got a lot of roots for old Michael Jackson. I'll just say that. So let's go back. At what point did you hit some adversity in your in your in your career? And how did you work through that one? What was it? And how did you work through that? And how has it shaped you to the man you are today?
00:14:39
Speaker
So in this business, there is a lot of adversity, especially for black people or people of color, because in the industry that I work in, it is a predominantly white field. And that starts from the producers on down, from the casting offices, the directors, the people that write the shows.
00:15:04
Speaker
But a lot of times you go in these rooms full of people that don't look like you and you have to remember why you are doing what you do. Because sometimes it can make you want to turn away or want to run away.
00:15:20
Speaker
But then when you remember why you are doing this, who you are doing this for, all of the struggles that you have been to, to get to this point, not that it completely overshadows what you have to deal with, but it makes it more palatable, if that makes sense. And I've had to overcome it a few times in my life and I just
00:15:42
Speaker
want people to know that if you stick with it, if you really love it, and if you're doing it for the right reasons, everything will work out in your favor. And I just want to give that advice to anybody that feels like they're walking into a space where they're not seen, where they're not heard. If you do it for the right reasons, you will eventually be seen and you will eventually be heard.
Overcoming Racial Adversity
00:16:07
Speaker
So just stick with it.
00:16:10
Speaker
Yeah, I love that. Love that. Great wisdom. I want to talk about real quick, because this is kind of like you're in that world that I think is a mystery to a lot of people. It's a mystery to me. How do you, can you talk about the business side of it? You know, because there's obviously the, I call it the artist dilemma.
00:16:30
Speaker
of like staying true to who you are as a performer, but then you also got to make money, you know, and it is a business, it's a big business. And so can I walk through like, how do you get to, you know, your first Broadway, like when do you get an agent? When do you hire some of these people? When do you know, like, when did you get more of the business savvy side of it to really start protecting yourself? And how do you make a career out of it? Yeah.
00:16:55
Speaker
The way that I actually got into it is an agent reached out to me after seeing me in a show. A lot of times that's the way that it happened. A lot of people will invite agents to come and see them in a show. Sometimes you have to actually invest in the career before you actually get the career. So there's sometimes a lot of money being spent before
00:17:21
Speaker
you actually get to the point that you're trying to reach. But an agent's DDO, they saw me in a performance and asked me if I wanted to come in for a meeting. I came in for a meeting. I freelanced for a little while. I think I freelanced for like two months because I kept booking jobs. And they're like, maybe we should just go ahead and sign him.
00:17:45
Speaker
So I finally was signed in 2010 I was signed and I was so lucky to have found an agent because now if you don't have an agent it's it's pretty hard to find any job these days. It used to be a lot easier back in the day not having an agent and you know not having to pay them that 10% or 20% every single week because that is
00:18:14
Speaker
what the fee is once you get the job and they've negotiated your contracts, it's about 10 to 20%. Usually it's 10% for an agent, 20% if you have a manager. And if you have both a manager and an agent, it's 30% because the agent wants their 10% and the manager wants their 20%. So you kind of might want to decide on which one
00:18:37
Speaker
works best for you, I don't have a manager because I don't think I need a manager and my mom would probably be my manager before anybody else would be. Sure. She's going to sell you better than anybody else. She's always, ever since I was there, I'm going to be your manager. So when it comes the time for me to actually have a manager. Can you just like, what's the difference? Agent is the person booking you?
00:19:01
Speaker
Well, an agent and a manager can get you bookings, but a manager is way more hands on with you.
Role of Agents and Managers
00:19:11
Speaker
They kind of manage who you are as a person as well as your career, your agent, more or less get you auditions and negotiate your contracts. But managers also do negotiations, but they manage your life as well as your career for the most part. They tell you where to go, what to do, to talk to, not to talk, not to talk to. So it's kind of like a manager slash
00:19:35
Speaker
PR person, but kind of protecting the brand. Right, right, right. But eventually people get managers and PR people. So if you have a manager, PR person, and that's when you're making the big dollars, because then you got to get lawyers involved. You got to get up. So yeah, one day, God, one day, but I'm grateful for where I am. I'm truly grateful for where I am right now. So yeah.
Diverse Roles on Broadway
00:20:00
Speaker
All right, Antoine, I want to hear about the roles that you played in each one of these plays, whether it be Memphis, Cats, Miss Saigon. I want to hear about the specific characters that you got to play. In Cats, I got to play Old Deuteronomy, who was the big old cat. Very regal, very, very respected, very old. How old was I when I played that role?
00:20:28
Speaker
In 2008, I was 27 years old and I was playing a 50-year-old plus cat. I mean, in cats, what happens is they're reborn and reborn and reborn, so this cat was about 50 years old. So I went from playing up giant birds to playing a giant cat. A lot of people love that joke.
00:20:54
Speaker
Let me see, I played John in Miss Saigon who was a black man in Vietnam and all that went along with that. He was a pretty complex character because he had to deal with his own stuff as well as dealing with being in the situation of Vietnam War.
00:21:16
Speaker
dealing with the situation of his friend and his relationship. If you guys haven't seen Miss Saigon or read about Miss Saigon, I ask that you do that so you get a little more of the context that I'm talking about. Sure, sure. I got to play Harpo in the color purple, who was a young man trying to find his way and dealing with his upbringing from his abusive father and, you know, trying to break
00:21:44
Speaker
generational curses and how he treated people because back then a lot of people may say, oh, this person was mean, this person was disrespectful. But a lot of times that's the only thing that they knew because that's how they grew up. So it's a play Harpo who was so complex and trying to find his way and relating that to my own self.
00:22:08
Speaker
as I try to navigate and find my way and no change generational things. I was also able to play Lord Pinkleton in Cinderella, which was a more fun character. He delivered the news and everybody loved him and it was a
00:22:26
Speaker
very playful character. In Carousel, I got to understudy the role of Billy Bigelow. Now, what's so interesting about Carousel is Billy Bigelow is normally traditionally played by a white man. In the Broadway revival production, he was a black man.
00:22:45
Speaker
Oh, if you're not familiar with the story of Billy Bigelow and Carousel, Billy Bigelow was an abusive husband, a neglectful father, just an all around not great guy.
00:23:00
Speaker
So when you implement this person being a black man who was married, his wife was still white in our revival. So dealing with the complexity of that. So I've gotten to play some amazing complex roles in my life just on Broadway.
00:23:22
Speaker
What's the Michael Jackson character? Now that I cannot give out yet. I love it. I mean, the show coming out is public in that regard, but who I am playing cannot yet. Sure. Okay. Well, I respect that, I guess. I promise you. Is it like it's not like a concert tour, it's about his life?
00:23:47
Speaker
Or can you just kind of frame in what it's about at a very high level? I can say that there's going to be 25 or so Michael Jackson songs that people are going to love.
00:24:03
Speaker
I'm not coming to that. I'm just publicly announcing I will be there. I will be a front row. I will be loving every minute of it. You're going to have to strap him down, I think. All I can say is it's going to be great. I don't know if you know who Ephraim Sykes is, but if you don't, please look him up. He is going to be our amazing Michael Jackson. Showstopper. This man has breathed and lived Michael Jackson his entire life.
00:24:31
Speaker
When watching him in the room, it's it's incredible. It's going to be absolutely fantastic. You know, it's because I went to Vegas to watch the Jackson show. Right, right, right. Right. And I'm not saying I was disappointed, but there was some there was some what would I say? It was like the cross between acrobatics and dancing. And so it wasn't doing one thing great. Does that make sense? Like it was the acrobats were
00:24:59
Speaker
And the dancer was like, fine, but you have acrobats dancing and dancers doing acrobats. And so what I'm excited about is Broadway, they're going to sing like crazy. And they're going to be dancing like crazy. So like it's going to bring it to a whole nother level. It's going to give you exactly what you expect. There it is.
00:25:19
Speaker
Michael Jackson and a show about Michael Jackson. Now, how do you get is there incentive if the show does better than
Managing Broadway's Demanding Schedule
00:25:27
Speaker
not? Is it like for multiple years that you're doing this? Do you ever get sick of singing the same song? Oh, I mean, it's.
00:25:35
Speaker
Let me say this, because a lot of people, Ms. Kastrew, at the end of the day, it's a job. So you go to your job every day and you're like, oh man, I want to be here today. Sometimes it truly is like that we're doing eight shows a week. And we have to give that same energy every single time that we do a show. And shows on Broadway are about two and a half to three hours long, depending
00:26:01
Speaker
on the shows and sometimes you do them two shows a day on Wednesdays and Saturdays you do two shows. So to do eight shows and to be able to bring that energy every single day you have
00:26:14
Speaker
to love what you do. And that's after you have, you have rehearsed for months. Yes. It's almost just like that old analogy, like, you know, once a popular song, popular actor gets a hit song, they've sang that fricking song so many times.
00:26:33
Speaker
They're almost sick of it. And so how do you keep your enthusiasm up? And how because I remember this is a little bit I can relate, is this the audience also plays a lot of that. And each audience is different, which is fun, which makes your job even more. OK, so let me ask you this. Have you ever screwed up on stage? And how did you overcome that, baby? Absolutely. I mean, it's live theater.
00:26:59
Speaker
This is a television where they can say, okay, no, we got to go back. There have been times, I mean, there have been times where I've forgotten entire versions to a song and people are queued on your, their interests are queued on something that you may say or something that you may do. The domino didn't fall. What do I do now?
00:27:22
Speaker
So I remember this one time very clearly. It was my last day on the Cinderella tour right before I was about to start, the color purple. And I had this huge speech where I'm announcing that the Prince is about to have
00:27:38
Speaker
this moment where everybody comes in and tries on the shoe, I completely forgot an entire verse. And this is while people are doing their costume changes. So what I'm saying is time to give these people enough to do their costume change. And I completely blanked on the verse. It's straight to the last word. People were running out, wigs half on, zipping up dresses, putting on shit. It was a disaster. But I just say that to say,
00:28:07
Speaker
hey, you just got to keep going no matter what and mistakes happen. And then you laugh about them later. But that's what makes life fun and enjoyable, the good and the bad.
00:28:20
Speaker
The question I've always had about the theater is, you know, these shows go on for, you know, like you're saying a year. Halfway through, you're stuck in wind. Like, is there performance reviews? Like, is there somebody waiting in the wings to take your spot? Oh, I mean, shows run for way longer than a year. Usually, you're contracted to do a year. Chicago's been on Broadway now, I think, for 25 years. Fanta's been on Broadway for 35 years.
00:28:46
Speaker
I mean, it just depends, but there's definitely always somebody in the wings waiting for your job. Your screw up. Yeah. Well, not screw up. Well, when you're ready to leave the show, somebody's ready to come on. But 1% of people that come to New York to audition to be on Broadway make it. Wow. 1%. Wow.
00:29:10
Speaker
So we talk a lot about residual income. And this is, it seems to me from now, as I'm looking in, this is a tough business. It will spit you out if you're not careful. How are you now? You've been in this nearly a decade. How are you now positioning yourself to, you know, probably thinking more about the longevity
00:29:32
Speaker
of your career monetizing your talents in different ways you've got agents how are you positioning yourself to you know kind of build other streams of income and can you do that in time into your contracts with the shows now that you have the statue that you do.
00:29:47
Speaker
Can you kind of frame some of that in?
Diversifying Income Streams
00:29:51
Speaker
That's why you have your agent or your manager to negotiate the best possible contract that you can. So say I'm going to be starting a show on Broadway and I'm in it and I'm contracted for a year, but I know that there's another project, a huge project that I know that's coming up maybe halfway through my year contract.
00:30:12
Speaker
your agent or manager has the opportunity to ask the producers, hey, so in six months, can Antoine go away for two weeks to do this movie or do this project that's probably going to eventually further his career or give him the finances that he needs? And sometimes
00:30:35
Speaker
The producers will say yes, sometimes the producers will say no. But for the most part, producers understand that the business that we are in is very, very hard. So any opportunities that we get, they try to root for us to continue to get those opportunities. And the way that I set myself up is
00:30:55
Speaker
I do theater, I do Broadway, yes, but I also am able to do commercials. I do voiceovers, which is right now so lucrative because people aren't able to be in close proximity to film commercials. So the voiceover commercial business is booming, booming, booming right now. So I thank you God that I'm able to continue to work and have a great flow of income coming in and
00:31:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's very important to have as many streams of income as you can, even if they're small streams of income.
00:31:32
Speaker
What I like about what you did is you've, you've aligned them to your gifts. Right. So you're doing voiceover, right? You have amazing voice. You're doing theater. You're doing like, you're doing many different ways, things, but it's not like, yeah, and over here I have an ice cream cone business. What? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. So it's everything that I do is kind of, uh, uh, umbrella under the same. Right. Same thing. Good. Yeah.
00:31:59
Speaker
Okay, we talk a lot about mentorship as the cheat code of life.
Mentors and Influences
00:32:03
Speaker
So I want to give you an opportunity to shout out to your mentors that helped you get to where you're at today. Oh, I have to first of all start with my mother, Christine Wooten, my father, Cleotha Wooten. Thank you for
00:32:19
Speaker
I mean, the life that I have right now would not even exist without those two and their example of hard work and being good to people. You have got to be good
00:32:35
Speaker
to people. You could be the difference between saving somebody's life and them deciding, oh, I don't want to live anymore by just giving them that one small piece of encouragement or even just saying hello or you know, just smile. Right. Smile, especially today. Mental illness is a real thing. And I'm glad that people are finally putting it on the forefront and realizing that this this is a real thing.
00:33:01
Speaker
So my mother and father were my first mentors. Then I have to bring it down to Julie and Amy DeGroote and Penny Rossford. These were our dance. The West High Dance Coaches.
00:33:16
Speaker
I mean, these people went hard for us. They taught us a lot of responsibility. Maturity. Which wasn't easy. They taught us. We definitely had our moments, but for the most part,
00:33:36
Speaker
They wanted to see us succeed. They were so, they had a 25 year successful run, well longer than that. It was 25 or 30 something when I left. So they had a very, very, very great career and run with the dance squad because of obvious reasons. They were great people, great mentors. They sacrificed a lot. They gave a lot. They didn't ask for a lot.
00:34:02
Speaker
Yeah, and I know they're going to listen to this, so I just want to say because I've had a couple things in my life and I've gotten to be on stage a couple times, blah, blah, blah. And it's interesting because always the producers will come up to me and be like, hey, like how you conduct yourself is so professional versus everybody else. And I totally give them credit.
00:34:22
Speaker
I mean, in high school, they corralled a cheetah. And now I can install those things that they, I mean, they drove home. No, you need to be professional. You need to walk like this. You need to act like a professional. And we were in high school. So that was a huge deal. So I totally edified those people as well. Keep going. Sorry. They were amazing. And then I have to give a shout out to Russ Clifford, who was our choir director, who
00:34:49
Speaker
mentored me, pushed me to... He was the reason that I wanted to be an opera singer. He just gave me the motivation that I needed and he saw something in me that I had never seen before. I mean, I grew up singing gospel and then he said, hey, come sing this song out of this 27 Arias book.
00:35:09
Speaker
Okay. And I mean, then I didn't know how to read music. He would play it and then I would sing it. But he was definitely another great mentor in my life. Fitzgerald Grant of the Sanford Center in Sioux City was another great mentor of mine.
00:35:29
Speaker
I don't want to leave anybody out. I think those are truly the people who gave me the foundation that I have right now and the people that I've met along the way, you know, have continued to build on that foundation. But once your foundation is strong, my God.
00:35:45
Speaker
everything is possible. Oh, and God, I thank you. Also my mentor, not here in the physical form, but there in spiritual and mental form, I thank you God. So yeah. That's so true. I got to ask a question. So my kids and I have kind of gotten into the mass singer and you hear a lot of these artists, right?
00:36:07
Speaker
talk about the anonymity and being able to perform without being seen and being judged and whatever their past is. But was Big Bird that role? Did that give you confidence being behind the costume? I was just kind of curious. I think I always had the confidence.
00:36:29
Speaker
Because before that, I had been doing theater. I did high school, middle school. I was in the community theaters. So I always think I have that confidence, but...
00:36:39
Speaker
Big Bird helped me to become a better performer because people weren't seeing me performing. I had to be okay with that. People were seeing Big Bird. And when we gave interviews, we couldn't say, oh, I'm playing Big Bird. It had to be, I'm a friend of Big Bird. I'm a friend of Elmo. I'm a friend of Spidey Grass. So, you know, it humbled you a lot.
00:37:01
Speaker
You know, when, when you have to dance in front of an overalls, a white t-shirt and a red bow tie, red sequin bow tie, you have a lot of confidence to do. And, uh, come on, ride that train comes on and you have to bring it down. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.
00:37:20
Speaker
It gives you experience that you never thought you'd have. Right. I mean, oh, God, those moments. We were like, we were literally superstars. We were. It was crazy. Like, again. These competitions, we were superstars. Like, I couldn't hear after we got done. I mean, you think I'm exaggerating, but, you know, and people are like, you're on dance squad? I was like, listen, let me tell you the ratio between guys and girls. You tell me when you want to start dance squad.
00:37:51
Speaker
Oh man, I love it. Antoine, this is a good joy. We need, we need a story. We need a story we haven't heard about, about Phillip. He's pretty quiet about the story. He doesn't share a lot. I can't do that. There's one above board. No, no, there's a brother code that is real. And I have to stick with that today. I appreciate that. Thank you. There's no that Phillip Ramsey is a great man.
00:38:18
Speaker
That's all I'm gonna say. Gentlemen and a scholar. How does our listeners find out more about you? And don't leave me out. When can I go and see you? I'm Michael Jackson.
00:38:30
Speaker
Well, you can follow me on Instagram at Antoine L. Smith, 32 A-N-T-O-I-N-E-L as in Larry. You said, when can you see me when? Where? And Michael Jackson. I'm coming to see him. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe we start performances March 8th. Yeah, we start the show March 8th. We officially open April 23rd, I believe. So there's a difference between previews and being open previews is
00:38:57
Speaker
it's four weeks of performances, but that gives the director and producers the time to change anything that they want to change in the show. Cause once the show is open, it is, uh, the term is called frozen, which means they can't change anything else after that. So yeah. So we start previews in March and we open in April, but I believe you can start buying tickets now. Okay. MJ the musical.com.
00:39:26
Speaker
What's like the best, give us some of our listeners like some of the secrets. Like if you're going to go to a show, is there a better day to see the show, better time? I would recommend seeing a matinee, which on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the matinees are usually at three o'clock PM. So you have
00:39:45
Speaker
all of your evening to do whatever you want. Go out and do something before and then come and enjoy a show at three o'clock. The main advice that I would give for people who can is to go straight to the box office to buy your tickets because once you start buying them, I'm like ticket master and things like that.
Broadway Ticket Purchasing Tips
00:40:02
Speaker
You have these third party fees that sometimes almost equate to the amount of the ticket.
00:40:07
Speaker
So if you go to the box office and sometimes if you ask for rush tickets, these tickets are like $40 and they're great, great seats. They may be like a partial view, which is why they sell them for $40. But sometimes the partial view is like the left side of somebody's body.
00:40:25
Speaker
you'll see the main stuff on the stage. So, ask for rush tickets, go to the box office if you can, and yeah. Those are good. Now, is this one of those shows that you want to be front and center? Like, and maybe you can't answer that yet. To me, I would say you want to be above and maybe like the mezzanine or the balcony.
00:40:47
Speaker
Because there's a lot of dancing going on. I want to see stuff from above and having to look up. Right, good. Antoine, man, I cannot thank you enough for just the wisdom that you impart and going down this uncommon path because not a lot of people do. And when they hit adversity, they run away. But that's not what you did, man. And so I cannot wait to see just your career
00:41:16
Speaker
explode. I cannot wait to see you on the Michael Jackson stage in person. I can't wait to give you a big old hug. And man, thank you for just all the wisdom that you've given to our listeners. Thank you for going after this uncommon life so hard and just be an example to so many people, brother. Thank you so much.
00:41:37
Speaker
You have been listed to the Uncommon Life Project. I've been your host, Phillip Ramsey. And I am Brian Dewhurst. Thanks, and tune in to the next time. Until then, go be uncommon. Thanks, everybody. Goodbye. That's all for this episode of the Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.