ATHLEISURE MAG #83 | NOV ISSUE

In this month’s issue, our cover story is with Season 15 BRAVO’s Top Chef Finalist, Butterfunk Biscuit Co founder and author, Chef Chris Scott. We caught up with him to talk about how he came to food, why he is so passionate, what it’s like to apply for Food Network, his cookbook Homage: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Soul Food Kitchen and why he believes in bringing up other chefs. We talk with Katie Lee about Kitchen Therapy, being on Food Network’s The Kitchen and her book Groundswell being a Hallmark Channel movie. We talk with NOV ISSUE #35 cover, TV Personality and chef/owner of Flip Sigi, Chef Jordan Andino. We talk with American Professional Volleyball Player, Sports Announcer, Podcast Host and Author, Gabby Reece. We talk about how she came to the sport, fitness, nourishment, recovery and more. We have been a fan of Jen Pelka for a number of years! As the founder of The Riddler which had locations in San Francisco and New York, we loved enjoying sips and bites. We talked about how she got into the industry, her passion for sparkling bubbles, launching Une Femme and more. We talk with Vittorio Assaf, Founder of Serafina Restaurant Group about this quintessential brand that we have enjoyed eating at, Serafina as well as Serafina Restaurant Group. We talk with the CEO of American Humane, Dr. Robin Ganzert to get to know about this institution which looks over the welfare of animals, the initiatives that they focus on, their cookbook Humane Table and more. We also talk with TRX’s Jack Daly and Randy Hetrick to talk about what TRX is, how it was created, their vision after the recent acquisition and more. Founder of Founder of Boxing WAGS and Co-Founder of D’Telli Fragrances, Telli Swift shares her must-haves in beauty, style and fitness. We also talk with Bryan Myers about his career as the current CEO + President of [solidcore], his background, his plan for [solidcore] and more.   

This month’s 9PLAYLIST comes from EDM DJ/Producer Dr. Phunk. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes from Jack Daly and Randy Hetrick.

Our monthly feature, The Art of the Snack shares a stunning spot that’s on our list for our next night out, Tokyo GG. This month’s Athleisure List comes from Rise Nation and Fit Fighter. As always, we have our monthly roundups of some of our favorite finds.

Read the NOV ISSUE #83 here.

EXPLORATION THROUGH FOOD | KRISTEN KISH

We enjoy seeing Kristen Kish hosting, judging a number of culinary shows and taking us through her recent trip to Seoul. We took some time to catch up with her since talking earlier this year ahead of TRU TV's Fast Foodies 2nd season.

We talk about her co-hosting Netflix's Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend, her new show on National Geographic - Restaurants at the End of the World and being on Selena + Chef on HBO Max.

We also talk about her latest partnership with Jongga Kimchi, a worldwide number one Korean brand. She also talked about their Generation Preservation campaign to preserve plant-forward foods, health and wellness through fermentation and environment to minimize food waste.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We enjoyed talking to you earlier this year prior to the 2nd season of Fast Foodies with you and you’re co-hosts Chef Justin Sutherland and Chef Jeremy Ford! It’s great to catch up as you’re always doing great things. We enjoyed seeing you over the summer on Netflix’s Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend! It was great to see the dynamic between you Alton Brown. We love the food fact that we learned about Korean Fried Chicken and how it came to be! Why did you want to be part of this show?

CHEF KRISTEN KISH: I mean, first and foremost, when they say that Iron Chef is coming back and that Iron Chef is coming back on Netflix – it means a lot of different things. Obviously, it’s so iconic in the Japanese form and then to see it evolve over time to hit the Food Network and then for me, Netflix, it just completely diversifies in a lot of different ways. You can hit so many different audiences, you can pull from different chefs and there is just so much more storytelling that can be had.

So I think for me, obviously Iron Chef – yes! Then Iron Chef Netflix and then there’s Alton Brown coming back! So already for me, I was feeling relatively insecure going into that job – it would scare anybody I think to go onto that job and to feel like that I can hold my own and to have enough to say with those things being worth hearing and to being able to do that with the comfort of Alton being next to me. I think that that was a nice dynamic coming together. I mean, all of it scared me shitless, but honestly, how do you not say yes to that?

AM: You looked amazing and you were a perfect fit for it and it was so good to watch. We hope that there will be more episodes of it for future seasons.

CHEF KK: Well thank you, thank you!

AM: You’re also on the latest season of Selena + Chef which is out now on HBO Max. The format of the show is great. How was it for you to do it virtually, to tell someone how to to cook something and what drew you in to want to be part of it?

CHEF KK: Ohh I remember it! So, I requested to my manager that I wanted to go on Selena + Chef! It looked like a lot of fun and I thought, why wouldn’t I want to cook with Selena Gomez? She was like ok and so she does what she does and she was like, great they want you on the next season and I’m like, “perfect!”

Honestly, it was so much more than what I expected in various ways. So I was expecting that I was going to teach Selena how to cook a few things and that we were going to call it a day. But I remember all of the prep-production calls and they were like, “we want to do start to finish. Like we want to have her work, do it – there’s no fluff around it, there’s no swap outs on and off camera.” Everything that she’s doing, we filmed for over a good 6 hours getting this stuff done. Selena went for it! She just did it all! I think that that is just the most interesting thing and it is hard to teach over Zoom because you are missing a human connection in a lot of ways. But for what it was and what was being asked of her to be quite frank, the whole thing was just a really really phenomenal experience.

AM: OMG! You always have so much going on! You’re also hosting Restaurants at the End of the World on National Geographic tell me about this! You’re a traveling girl!

CHEF KK: Oh my goodness! It is! For a girl that didn’t think that she would travel in her life because I thought that I was just going to be working in kitchens and I just wouldn’t make a ton of money – I would just live my life and that was just going to be how it was – to say that I can travel for my job and not only for my job, but in pockets of the world where it’s very foreign to me and meeting chefs that have this resilience in how they run a restaurant and that can be several different definitions. How they can run their restaurants with limited resources and access to the luxuries that we have with our restaurants here especially in the States.

The whole project is really phenomenal. I think that the biggest thing is yes, food is always going to be the through line, but it’s about who these people are and how and why they do this. Like, it’s just mind-blowing to me and I’ve learned a tremendous amount about how to just relinquish control as this is the theme for those people. What will be, will be – and that’s it! Argh that’s such a hard concept because in my form of restaurants, anything that I can control, I’m going to! If I can control the outcome, you better believe that I am going to control the outcome because there are so many unknowns. But all of these people have been really phenomenal.

AM: Can’t wait to check that out as it sounds really exciting.

I love Kimchi, it’s one of my favorite things to eat. You’ve partnered with Jongga Kimchi. Why was this such a fit for you that you wanted to be part of it?

CHEF KK: You know, Korean culture for me, I’ve had a complicated relationship with being an adoptee. I think that a lot of adoptees can relate wherever you are adopted from. Having a connection to your culture when you are brought up in that kind of household or where you are brought up in an environment where people look like you. I think that for me, I always shied away from a lot of it because I thought, I’m not Korean enough. So, who am I to own Korean culture because it’s not mine. But it is mine and I’m allowed to redefine what it is and what it means to me.

So I recently took my first trip to Korea, I ate so much food – traditional and otherwise! For me, I think that it opened up my eyes to say that there’s not just one way to do this. I think that giving myself the permission to lean into partnering with Jongga Kimchi which it originated in Korea, it’s the number 1 world wide brand in Korea! So to say, hold on, they want me for a reason. That reason is because of my story and my interpretation of what being Korean means to me. So I think that just them giving me the permission and them giving me the permission for me to be able to create recipes that aren’t traditionally Korean and I think that that was like this whole moment like, “ahh ok, here we are. Now I understand what this means.” It’s been a really dream partnership for me personally and professionally.

AM: I remember watching your IG when you were going to Korea and it was so cool to see how you were connecting. I think that there is a sense of connection that everyone has even if you grew up in American and you grew up with a family that looks like you and as an African American you’re saying I see this, but where are the roots and what does that mean? I think being able to watch you on your journey and for you to share that with everyone was so impactful and beautiful.

CHEF KK: Thank you!

AM: I enjoy eating kimchi on its own or on a salad. But what recipes in terms of integrating it in a different way? I love this dish so much, what else should we be doing with it?

CHEF KK: Honestly, any place that you can impart acid, I say add kimchi and swap it out! Whether that be a burger or you chop it up and thread it through a beautiful carbonara – think about the little bits of acid and heat through something so rich. I created 2 recipes specifically with Jongga Kimchi.

One is a play off of my Midwestern love for potatoes -

AM: Yes! I live in NY but I’m from Indiana originally!

CHEF KK: Yeah! Ok, then you’re going to be right here with me! I love a tater tot!

AM: Oh yes!

CHEF KK: Give me a tater tot in any form! So now we can jazz it up and we can call it a croquette and now we’re in a little fancier background. Then, the love of Korean BBQ and the cheese corn that you get and then mix it up and putting it all together with this smoked mozzarella bechamel that I make and then thread it with corn, potatoes – thread it, fry it – it’s crunchy, cheesy and delicious.

Then the other one is my ode to little hot dogs wrapped in baked croissant dough! We can’t really call that by it’s brand name because it’s not a croissant, but it’s in dough. The love of pigs in a blanket and it’s just so yummy! And I make a kimchi honey mustard using the kimchi brine because we chop up the kimchi to put it inside of the roll and then we use the brine to make the honey mustard and it’s just so good!

AM: The last time that I talked to you, you turned me onto Kewpie which I loved that! Now you’ve turned me onto the fact that I need my tater tots with kimchi on it – check!

How is kimchi made and why is it so important to preserve plant biodiversity?

CHEF KK: I mean, food waste in general, a lot of times in restaurants, we’re always thinking about how we can preserve and how to make things last. How to use the undesirable pieces of different vegetables and meats. It’s something that I have always been very passionate about ever since I have been in the culinary industry and also learning about how to do it. Because a lot of times, you go to culinary school, but they don’t always teach you how to use the end cuts and how to use the things that are less desirable. So it’s important. I think kimchi is important to preserve the history and the culture of kimchi making! I’ve gone on a deep dive on YouTube watching sweet Korean ladies making kimchi and obviously it stems from a place of need and that’s why we do a lot of things and where it stems from when we do the things that we do. It’s out of necessity. Here’s a fact, there is a very high percentage of cabbage that is at risk or has gone extinct in terms of different varietals that are no longer in use or in production or being grown. So the Generation Preservation campaign that Jongga is doing is really focusing on the preserving of the history of the preservation and why we do the things that we do in order to keep sustaining the vegetables and to kind of keep moving things forward.

So, being able to use products like that is really important and of course how you make kimchi! Now there are various versions. There’s cabbage kimchi, there’s other kimchi’s there’s all this food and food has evolved and carries different stories from all of these different kinds of people. But traditional cabbage kimchi is this rice paste flour, Korean chili flakes, lots of aromatics – ginger, garlic all blended into a paste and then you layer it onto these leaves and I think that a lot of the rich tradition is in the process right? Watching how meticulous it is in order to make it and so I think that anyone at home can make kimchi, do I think that there are far better kimchi’s especially those that I can personally make – absolutely! So sometimes, it’s just best to buy it!

AM: My sister just came back from Seoul and I was watching all of her pictures and I was like, I want to eat it from there!

CHEF KK: I mean, I’ve eaten at a lot of Korean restaurants in LA and in NY and those Koreatowns of those specific cities and you know that you can find some really good stuff. But there is something to be said when you sit in a Korean restaurant with a bunch of Korean people and you don’t understand everything – there’s just something that brings it to a whole other level! I have to tell you that things taste different over there in a really beautiful way!

I will say that when you go, you should try and I don’t know if your sister has gone there – Temple Cuisine. I had a temple lunch in the middle of Seoul and it was just tucked away and the atmosphere was amazing. The food was just transformative in the fact that it is uncomplicated and you just know that it is coming from a place – I don’t even have words to describe it because it’s just a feeling and I highly recommend you hitting that up!

AM: Well, if you say it, that’s all I need to hear!

CHEF KK: It’s really really good!

AM: You’re always on the go and you have so many things going on and I have never been to your restaurant in Austin, Arlo Grey but we have plans to be there next Spring so that we can check it out for ourselves. Are there projects that you’re working on that you’re able to share that we can keep an eye out for?

CHEF KK: Yes! Obviously, we have Restaurants at the End of the World which is coming out and is huge and amazing. And the restaurant – please, please come visit! Parallel to kimchi I have a line of Soju coming out, which is Korean alcohol. I love your reaction, that's a great reaction! A lot of Soju is like ahahah harsh so I’m doing a line of 4 aperitifs with lots of great storytelling and a lot of good stuff and good flavor in it. Keep an eye out for that so grab some Jongga Kimchi and get my new Soju and have a grand old time!

AM: We enjoyed talking with Chef Kristen Kish about her recipes and as we enjoy a great tater tot or croquette, here is how you can make your own with Jongga Kimchi!

JONGGA KIMCHI CREAMED CORN CROQUETTE

PRODUCT | Jongga Napa Cabbage Kimchi

SERVES | 30 - 40 2oz croquettes

PREP TIME | 60 minutes

TOTAL TIME | 1 hour, 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CROQUETTE

• 2 pounds russet potatoes

• 3 cups of fresh corn kernels (approx. 3 small ears)

• Smoked mozzarella Mornay (see recipe below)

• 2 cups Jongga Kimchi – squeezed dry and finely chopped, reserve 3 tablespoons of Jongga Kimchi juice

• Salt to taste

• Vegetable oil or frying oil as needed

• 1 large Black Truffle as desired/needed

• Celery leaves, lemon, Maldon Salt and chives to garnish

FOR THE SMOKED MOZZARELLA MORNAY

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 3 tablespoons all purpose flour

• 3 sprigs thyme

• 2 large cloves garlic – peeled and gently smashed

• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

• 1 small shallot – peeled and small diced

• 1¼ cup whole milk

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 6 ounces smoked mozzarella – cut into small cubes/pieces small cubes/pieces

BREADING STATION

• 2 - 4 cups panko – crushed with your hands and mixed with ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• 4 eggs – beaten and mixed with ½ teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, mixed with 1 teaspoon gochutgaru, ½ teaspoon dried thyme and ½ teaspoon kosher salt

INSTRUCTIONS

FOR THE SMOKED MOZZARELLA MORNAY

1. In a medium saucepan add the butter, flour, thyme, garlic, peppercorns, and shallot.

2. Turn on heat to medium and allow the butter and flour to come together, forming a blond roux.

3. Slowly whisk in the whole milk and allow mixture to come to a simmer, scraping down the sides and stirring frequently. Mixture will thicken.

4. Add in the cheese 1/3 at a time, stirring to incorporate.

5. Once cheese is fully melted, turn off heat and transfer into a wide shallow container, placing plastic wrap directly over the sauce.

6. Refrigerate until the sauce is room temp or chilled to the touch.

FOR THE CROQUETTE

1. Bake potatoes at 400°F for about an hour or until tender.

2. Remove from oven and let cool enough to handle.

3. Remove the skin and gently fork mash the potatoes while still hot, set aside to cool.

4. Mix together the room temperature or cooled cheese sauce with the corn kernels.

5. Add the kimchi, potatoes, and kimchi juice.

6. Mix until incorporated and season with salt to taste.

7. Form into 2 oz discs, larger or smaller depending on preference.

8. Freeze until firm (optional but makes it easier)

9. Working in batches, dredge each croquette in the flour mixture (be sure to tap off excess before moving on) then in the egg mixture, then in the panko mixture.

10. Deep fry in 350 – 370°F vegetable oil.

11. Garnish with celery leaves tossed in lemon juice, chives, Maldon Salt and lots of shaved black truffles.

12. Serve immediately.

IG @kristenlkish

@jongga_global

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Kristen Kish

Read the OCT ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see EXPLORATION THROUGH FOOD | Kristen Kish in mag.

NEXT LEVEL CHILI | RICHARD BLAIS

We caught up with Chef Richard Blais who we enjoy seeing him judge on Guy's Grocery Games, seeing him in person emceeing at StarChefs in Brooklyn and Taste of Tennis with the Williams' sisters or when he is mentoring his team for Next Level Chef alongside Gordon Ramsay and Nyesha Arrington! We talked about chili which is perfect for this time of year as we begin to embrace all things fall! He shares his recipe and how he keeps it interesting with unexpected pairings!

We also find out about his projects with his latest restaurants Ember & Rye and Four Flamingos that he opened at Hyatt Hotel properties in Florida and of course getting the scoop on season 2 of Next Level Chef which will premiere immediately following the Super Bowl on Feb 12th!

ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s always great when we have the chance to talk with you. We’ve watched you when we were at Star Chefs and Taste of Tennis with the Williams’ Sisters, enjoyed you on Next Level Chef and it’s always great to catch up with you. What is it about being on Next Level Chef that you wanted to be on that show?

CHEF RICHARD BLAIS: Oh my gosh! I hate to use the pun right off the bat, but it’s been a next level experience! I get to hang out with Nyesha Arrington and Gordon Ramsay, 2 people that I have a tremendous amount of respect for. I’ve kind of been blessed in my career that I got to stand next to and work with true juggernauts in our industry so that and the fact that it’s a brand new concept! I think that it is next level and there’s an energy about it that fits my frenetic energy as well. I just literally came off set 2 days ago – we just got done filming season 2 which is going to premiere on Super Bowl night immediately following the Super Bowl!

AM: What? I am excited!

CHEF RB: Yes! I was going to say, that I could tell by your reaction that that is a pretty big timeslot to be directly from, “you just won the Super Bowl – what are you doing," to Next Level Chef! So we're really really excited about the millions of eyeballs that will be on it for sure!

AM: That’s so exciting! I love chili especially during this time of year. Who doesn’t? We recently had a chili recipe that is in a cookbook with other chili recipes. So being able to talk about this topic is awesome. I love unexpected pairings and the one we submitted is a Mezcal version. So I want to know, what do you love about chili?

CHEF RB: Oh my gosh! Well first of all, you’re an expert so now I’m a little taken aback and I didn’t know that you have published chili recipes, but what I really love about chili is 1 – as we’re talking about it and as your recipe showcased, is the versatility when it comes to creativity. 2 – I love one pot meals! As a busy person, as a dad, people are like, “oh you’re a competitive chef.” Everyday people have the real challenge that they come home from work and they have 30 minutes to make a dish. Their kids are coming home and it’s just chaos. Everyone is in this competition world and so I love meals that can be cooked in one pot and it’s pretty easy why. Not to get too technical, when you cook something in one pot, all of the flavor stays in that one pot. Most of the world’s great dishes are like that whether it’s a mole from Mexico, a bourguignon from France, a chili from whatever part of the world you’re making it from. I mean really, most of the world’ great cuisine starts with just one pot.

AM: I couldn’t agree more. I live in NY now, but I’m from the Midwest originally and that’s the land of the one pot meals!

CHEF RB: There you go! As a native NYer and someone that people always mistake me from being from the Midwest by the way – I think it’s because I’m nice! I think it’s generally I’m a nice guy. And again, you mentioned the Midwest and again, chili season – the weather. I live in Southern California, but if there is 1 leaf, it’s fall! If it’s 69˚, the fireplace is on and that it’s fall! If it’s 69˚, the fireplace is on and that sort of cuisine really fits for those moments! So yeah, I’m really excited about this chili!

AM: This month is National Chili month and I’m sure that you have a recipe that you want to share with us?

CHEF RB: I do! So you talked about your creative chili with Mezcal. Mine is going to start a little more classic. This is a chili that I make at home a lot. It’s a beef base, it’s a ground beef with beans and corn. And I have to ask you. Are you ok with beans in chili?

AM: Love beans in chili!

CHEF RB: Ok! Usually, you are if you’re not from Texas or you’re a real chili purist. But I like anytime you can get nutrition in there especially if you’re cooking with the family. I love that. So, it’s beef, beans, chili, onions, I do like to cook it down. In this case, I’m going to use some beer which is going to add a depth of flavor. Now listen, it’s not an alcoholic dish, the alcohol burns away. It’s just the flavor of the age if you will. It’s like when you’re cooking with wine and you get that depth of flavor. I also like to add cocoa powder which is one of my secret ingredients to my chili. My favorite regional chili is Cincinnati chili, have you ever heard of it?

AM: Oh yes, I was a Skyline girl.

CHEF RB: Oh yes, that I was going to say. It’s either Skyline or the other one! I love Cincinnati chili and I love – I mean, we’re vibing so I’m just going to share here. I feel like Cincinnati chili is the most underrated regional food in the US!

AM: FACTS!

CHEF RB: Facts! Exactly! I love – I mean you’re from the Midwest. I love Deep Dish pizza, I love a Philly Cheesesteak, every place has it’s thing. I love Barbecue Shrimp, Po’ Boys. Cincinnati chili, why is it so special? It has cocoa powder in it, it has cinnamon, it’s got cloves – it’s got all of these wintery almost fruity spices which makes my chili pair really well with the next step which is a peanut butter sandwich. A peanut butter sandwich combined with chili!

Now, I’m a chef, you know that! My peanut butter sandwich, I have to take to the next level – pardon the pun! I grew up not eating crust on my peanut butter sandwiches. I hope no one comes at me for not wanting crust on my peanut butter, blame my mom right? We all have memories. I’ve taken my peanut butter sandwich and made it into a raviolo, a big ravioli and instead of the pasta dough, it’s just white bread which is soft and fluffy and it’s filled with some creamy peanut butter and that is going to be a garnish for my chili. The rest of the garnishes you’ve probably already seen. I like garnishing on top with some onions, scallions, lots of jalapeños – are you ok with spice?

AM: Our recipe also had jalapeños in it!

CHEF RB: There you go and peanut butter neutralizes spice and you can make it spicier by adding the peanut butter sandwich next to it. Finish garnishing that out with a little cilantro. When I’m coming up with a flavor combination like this – peanut butter and chili, I look for ingredients that connect the dots. So cilantro you might see on a chicken satay which is a peanut butter sauce with lime juice and fish sauce. So the ingredients start connecting and then of course, I’m going to garnish with a little more texture, I’m using salted chopped peanuts – a lot of texture and then my beautiful, soft adorable –

Am I allowed to call this adorable?

AM: It’s pretty cute!

CHEF RB: Ok cute works! Cute, but not too cute to eat because you will eat it. And then a little bit of that right on there which is my version of a peanut butter sandwich chili recipe.

AM: Whether people are adding an unexpected twist to their recipe or they are using a passed down family recipe, how can people take them to the next level in term of general notes?

CHEF RB: Yeah, general notes! I think that the number 1 thing and you get this because you already revealed your amazing chili recipe. Have fun in the kitchen and don’t be afraid to make mistakes and I will tell you that some of the inspiration that I have received from being on the sets of these cooking shows where people have to cook in 10-15 minutes, is that inspiration happens sometimes because of improv right?

AM: Right!

CHEF RB: So if you can do this, set the clock to 45 minutes – I’m giving you an extra 15 minutes. Open up the fridge and just cook. Just go for it and don’t be tied to a specific recipe or cookbook. I love cookbooks, I love recipes, but sometimes you have to get away from the recipes to sort of find that creative source of genius! That’s when you end up adding cinnamon or cocoa powder or peanut butter sandwiches next to your chili. So just have fun with it. Make it a game!

AM: Love that!

You recently opened 2 new restaurants. You have Ember & Rye and also Four Flamingos. Can you tell us about these new restaurants?

CHEF RB: So both are affiliated with the Hyatt brand so Ember & Rye is a steakhouse at Park Hyatt Aviara in Carlsbad, CA. It’s a fine dining steakhouse next to an award winning golf course. If you’ve seen me on social media playing a lot of golf, it is because of that! They also have amazing tennis facilities as well because I know that we know each other from the tennis world as well. So that’s our steakhouse, Ember & Rye.

In Orlando, FL, Four Flamingos is my take on my memories of FL. Having my wife’s family from there, my east coast family vacationed there and also the influences that happen in that region – Central South American and Caribbean influences – a piece of local fish with a citrus beurre Blanc almost going backwards. You know, sometimes you can go backwards far enough where you can start seeing the future. There’s a reason why things are a classic and so we’re celebrating some of the things that are a classic of Floridian foods.

AM: Love that!

You’re a man that is always busy and you have a lot going on. Do you have any projects that you would like to share with us that we should keep an eye out for? Clearly, Next Level Chef, Super Bowl Sunday!

CHEF RB: Yes! Next Level Chef, thank you for that! I am in the process of finishing up my 3rd cookbook which will be a lot more plant-based. Maybe you will see a peanut butter sandwich next to some vegetarian chili in that book. That will come out hopefully by holiday season next year. There’s always a couple of restaurants in play!

AM: That’s so exciting and thank you for taking the time by talking with us here at Athleisure Mag and also on our podcast, Athleisure Kitchen! We always like the various interviews we’ve had with you or seeing you at events.

CHEF RB: I had a lot of fun – let’s do it in person sometime soon!

IG @richardblais

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Richard Blais

Read the OCT ISSUE #82 of Athleisure Mag and see NEXT LEVEL CHILI | Richard Blais in mag.

ATHLEISURE MAG #82 | OCT ISSUE

In this month’s issue, our cover story is with International superstar, recording artist, producer and Global Ambassador of UNHCR, MIYAVI. We caught up with him to talk about his latest studio album which has covers from anime programs, his current tour, his creative process and the importance of giving back to others through the power of his music. We catch up with the cast and filmmakers of Prime Video’s The Peripheral. We talked with Gary Carr, T’Nia Miller, JJ Feild, Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy and Vincenzo Natali. We catch up with Chef Richard Blais who talks to us about his love for chili, unexpected pairings and the second season of Next Level Chef which premieres Super Bowl Sunday. We also talk with Brookelyn Suddell Global Fitness and Strategy Development of Crunch Fitness as she talks about the brands’ ethos, the importance of group fitness classes and how they onboard their programs. Chef Nick Wallace talks about his passion for showcasing Mississippi cuisine, how we can make meals quickly that are full of flavor and of course, how he gives back to others. We also talk with Chef Kristen Kish to talk about a number of shows that we have seen her in recently, as well as her upcoming one on National Geographic. She talks about her partnership with Jongga Kimchi and shares a recipe with us that’s on our list for fall gatherings. We also talk about her upcoming projects.

This month’s 9PLAYLIST comes from EDM DJ/Producer Armin van Buuren. Our 9DRIP comes from chef and restaurateur, Chef Justin Sutherland. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes from choreographer and Creative Director Tanisha Scott. Our The 9LIST STORI3S comes from beauty founders Deepica Mutyala and Trinny Woodall.

Our monthly feature, The Art of the Snack shares the perfect fall spot that is great for friends and family, Osteria Accademia. This month’s Athleisure List comes from PAVE and Ras Plant. As always, we have our monthly roundups of some of our favorite finds.

Read the OCT ISSUE #82 of Athleisure Mag.

ATHLEISURE MAG #81 | SEP ISSUE

In this month’s issue, our cover story is with International EDM DJ/Producer and philanthropist, Alok. We caught up with him after a busy summer of residencies and festivals to talk about his passion for music, his process when he creates his music, his #1 Billboard US charted song DEEP DOWN, the importance of collaborations and his focus to give back to Indigenous communities. We also talk with Chef Justin Sutherland about his culinary career from Fast Foodies and Taste the Culture to his restaurants, Handsome Hog and The Big E as well as showcasing the Twin Cities Culinary Scene. We also talk about his cookbook Northern Soul: Southern-Inspired Home Cooking from a Northern Kitchen which is out now. You can also hear this discussion on our podcast, Athleisure Kitchen. We also talk with Brian Baumgartner who we know as Kevin Malone in The Office. We talk about this role and how chili became an iconic moment that has now manifested into his cookbook Seriously Good Chili Cookbook: 177 of the Best Recipes in the World. We talk about the depth of chili, recipes he enjoyed and you can even see the recipe that we contributed to this cookbook as well. This interview is also available on Athleisure Kitchen right now.

We enjoyed Electric Zoo that took place Labor Day Weekend and we share a recap of what took place and if you weren’t there or were at another stage, we have images from this epic weekend. We also have an interview with another of our favorite DJ/Producers, Armin van Buuren. He talks about how he approaches his sets, his routines before and after and his B2B set with David Guetta. 

We catch up with Samantha Morton and Liv Hill who play the older and younger versions of Catherine Medici in STARZ’s The Serpent Queen. We talk about how they approached their roles, interacting with one another and putting a modern take on this iconic figure.

This month we catch up with Trinny Woodall, founder of Trinny London. She talks about how she created her line, the importance of clean beauty, aesthetically pleasing packaging and new products that are available. We also talk with Deepica Mutyala, founder of Live Tinted talks about how her brand went from a community to a skincare line with products that work to enhance their skin regardless of their skin tone. We talk about how she created her brand, upcoming launches and more.

This month’s 9PLAYLIST comes from EDM DJ/Producer Hozho. Our 9DRIP comes from this month’s cover, Alok, Armin van Buuren. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes from WTA tennis star and philanthropist Sloane Stephens as well as Brian Baumgartner. Our The 9LIST STORI3S comes from WTA tennis star Leylah Fernandez and founder of Sheryl Lowe Jewelry, Sheryl Lowe.

Our monthly feature, The Art of the Snack shares a fun steakhouse in NYC, Vinyl Steakhouse. This month’s Athleisure List comes from Breathwrk and POUND. As always, we have our monthly roundups of some of our favorite finds.

Please note that you may have a number of brands/clients within the issue so make sure to check out all the pages! If you have an issue accessing the links – do let me know! 

Read the SEP ISSUE #81 of Athleisure Mag.

IT'S ALL ABOUT FAMILY | POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN SEASON 2

We always like chatting with those who are in the POWER universe. STARZ's POW- ER BOOK III Raising Kanan is back for Season 2 on Aug 14th. We caught up with its creator, executive producer and writer, Sascha Penn (POWER, Survivor's Remorse, CREED II) and two of the stars from the show Hailey Kilgore (Respect, Ain't Misbe- havin', Into the Woods) who plays Jukebox and Omar Dorsey (Genius: Aretha, Queen Sugar, Halloween Kills) who plays Cartier.

We caught up with them to talk about how they prepare for being in this series from channeling the era of the 90's as an actor as well as to get the feel of the show through music and clothing. We talk about where we left these characters last season and where we find them now. More importantly, we look at how this show, as a prequel, has a set destination while having the challenge to create the origin story that we have the ability to see the connective tissue of those involved!

ATHLEISURE MAG: You were a producer and writer for the flagship POWER - how did that transition feel when you became the creator for POWER BOOK III: Raising Kanan for the roles of showrunner, executive producer and writer?

SASCHA PENN: I will tell you that Courtney Kemp who is obviously the creator of POWER, she warned me! She said, “I don’t know if you want this job!” She was right ha ha!

It’s a lot more work, it’s a lot more responsibility. Obviously, I had to create a world that didn’t exist whereas the other POWER BOOK’s do have the luxury of characters that are already in the original POWER. So in the case of this particular series, there’s a lot of invention that had to happen and that was a real challenge and still staying true to the original series, that’s always important!

AM: Absolutely!

SP: To have it feel part of that and at the same time, distinct from it, that’s part of the challenge. As well as the fact that you know how the story is going to end with Kanan (Mekai Curtis) if you watch the original POWER. So how do you make that interesting? How do you make that compelling? I mean, it’s a very very different job, and Courtney, I appreciate her warning me because she was right, but it’s a great job too and I can’t complain.

 AM: What’s your creative process like? Like you said, you're establishing a be- ginning of the universe and yet you know where it’s ultimately going to go.

SP: Yeah, first off, I’m very fortunate that I have a room full of writers to help me figure out these stories and to deconstruct these characters and then build them back up. You know, the process is that really in TV, you start from the characters. That’s the starting point for everything in TV. We had Kanan and then it was the question of again, to your point – we know how the story ends, where do we start? It’s not that interesting to tell the story of a sociopath if that’s how he starts! We really landed and I hope that it works that this is a family drama. It’s the story of this family – Kanan’s family and understanding how he became who he became. If you’ve watched it, you know that he has started out from a different spot then where he ended.

AM: What are you excited about in terms of Season 2 with the storylines and dif- ferent things that you can share with us?

SP: I think what’s exciting is first off, there’s this business of how Season 1 ended that we have to clean up right? That’s a real challenge because it ended in such a dramatic fashion and so you know that obviously that had an impact on Raq (Patina Miller) and Kanan’s relationship and the family in general. At the same time, she’s balancing these very personal issues with her expanding business. That is in some respect the balance that we all have to sort of address which is work and life and how do we do it? In her case, the stakes are significantly higher. But you know what's great in Season 2 and really any series that gets another season or multiple seasons, you get the opportunity to go deeper, go into different places and really get the opportunity to explore these different characters in a way that you haven’t before. In this series, we’re fortunate that we have incredible actors who are doing it. That’s the other thing. In Season 1, you don’t to- tally know what you’re going to get and in the case of Raising Kanan we have been so fortunate that the actors have been so incredible and it really allows it to be able to write bigger storylines and dramatic moments because these actors can kind of do anything!

AM: It feels like that in addition to the great characters and the storyline, having it set in the 90’s, you have the music and just the clothing that’s also another character. It’s just as big and brings that ambiance factor. How was it to navigate that? Getting clothes and sneakers that are distinct to the era?

SP: It’s a huge challenge and that’s a great question because it’s a huge, huge challenge! It’s probably one of our great- est challenges because of course, all the great sneaker releases when they release the Jordans, like the Jordans 5, they look slightly different from the ones of that era. So we have to be really careful because you know, the viewers they know better than we do and they will call us out! Twitter is undefeated! So it really is a big job and we are very fortunate, we have a Costume Designer Tsigie White who spends months and months and months going through people’s warehouses and closets trying to find the original deadstock stuff that we use. We’ve also been fortunate that we’ve worked with designers of that era like Dapper Dan who have built stuff for us like Unique’s (Joey Bada$$) outfits, those are original Dapper Dan – such as that jacket. The goods news is what’s old is new again and all this 90s stuff like Sergio Tacchini is back!

Looking at the show, we got to see the complexity of having the character's ends set in stone while also being able to really dig into who they were before who they came to be in POWER and even as they continue in the other portions of the POWER universe!

We wanted to talk with Hailey who is one of the actors who plays a character that we saw in POWER, Jukebox. We wanted to know how she came to the show, connected to her character and how she found her way to catch the 90's vibe of that time and in NYC in order to bring her to light. We also wanted to find out about Omar and his character Cartier.

ATHLEISURE MAG: You play Jukebox and Cartier, what attracted you to want to be this character as well as to be part of this show?

HAILEY KILGORE: I was so into being a princess when I was younger. I wanted to play princesses and I wanted to be a damsel in distress and that’s exactly what I got to do when I was on Broadway and I did my first couple of roles. I remember calling my team at one point and saying, “I want to do something gritty, do something different. I want to get down in the mud and really go there with a character!” So Jukebox came into my inbox and I was just immediately so pulled to this character and her story and who she is at her core. So yeah, I was like, I’m absolutely going to do this, I’m a huge Anika Noni Rose (The Princess and the Frog, THEM, POWER) fan. She was the original Jukebox on POWER as an adult.

AM: It was like perfect kismet! What about you Omar?

OMAR DORSEY: Honestly, I was into the Raising Kanan from the first episode because of Patina Miller (Madam Secretary, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 + 2, The Many Saints of Newark). I think she is one of our most gifted artists. I did a stage reading for a Broadway show with her a few years ago and was impressed with her. So, when I got the call about the show, Patina was the first thing I thought about.

AM: What’s it like for you preparing since this takes place in the 90’s as you’re playing the character and taking on this iconic era.

HK: Yeah, that was a very very different time and especially in NYC in the 90’s. Oooo it was such a different time and women really had to survive on a day-to-day basis. I really just went to the root. I watched a lot of documentaries. I listened to a lot of rappers that came up in NY. If you just listen and pay attention, you hear the struggle and the pain. It’s so interesting because to them, it was an everyday scenario. So, I just really like to ground my performance in the realism of survival. Jukebox really wears that mask. You see with her family that she’s silly and wants to laugh and she can cry and confide in them. But then, when she’s out in public, she’s stoned face and I have fun with that.

OD: With Raising Kanan taking place in the 90’s, the preparation was easy for me. The 90’s were quite a time for me. I was in high school and listening to all the music, wearing all the clothes that we did in the show. I felt like I was pretty much taken into a time machine.

AM: Where do we leave Jukebox in Season 1 and where do we pick up with her again heading into Season 2?

HK: Season 1 leaves Juke really heartbroken and so when we come back, we see her as quite a shell of herself. We see how she starts picking up the pieces and put- ting them back together in her own way.

AM: Tell us about Cartier “Duns” Fareed and what can we expect from his as we watch him this season?

OD: Cartier is an international man of mystery. What does he do to make all the money that he has? He's a Shakespeare spewing, art collecting gent ... with a serious secret. Let’s just say he introduces people to each other.

AM: Hailey, you are involved in so many things and the fact that you are part of the world of Broadway and TV as well, what are some upcoming projects that you have going on that we should keep an eye out for?

HK: I have a couple of projects coming out! I finally, have really invested my time into music so I will be dropping an EP very very soon. My first single off that EP, Worth It, drops on Aug 12th which I’m so excited about! This will be my first time leading a movie, it’s called Cinnamon and that will be coming out very very soon.

AM: Omar, we have enjoyed seeing you in a number of projects from Ray Donovan, Genius, Queen Sugar and even being Pastor Green in The Lower Bottoms podcast! What are some other projects coming up that we should keep an eye out for?

OD: Queen Sugar’s final season airs Sep- tember 6th. I’m so very excited for the world to see the culmination of the entire Bordelon clan. Hollywood and Vi (Tiffany Lifford) in particular. Their love has been an inspiration to see on TV weekly for almost a decade. I’m also returning to the Halloween franchise as Sheriff Barker for the finale of the Blumhouse produced trilogy, “Halloween Ends.” I think old Mike Meyers will finally meet his match!

IG @pennsascha

@haileyfkilgore

@omarjdorsey

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | STARZ/POWER BOOK III: Raising Kanan

Read the AUG ISSUE #80 of Athleisure Mag and see IT’S ALL ABOUT FAMILY | POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN Season 2.

BIG DIVA ENERGY | BIG FREEDIA

Hip hop has a number of sub genres that we can enjoy when we're at our favorite club, dance festival, studio class or just hanging out at home. We've been long time fans of Bounce, a New Orleans sound that make it impossible to not dance to. A number of people are associated with this sound as well as popularizing it!

In this month's issue we catch up with Big Freedia, the Queen Diva who is known for Bounce music. Whether it's watching her successful show Big Freedia: Queen of Bounce which gave access to her life on tour as well as just navigating the industry, watching performances or even seeing her in shows as HBO's Treme, guest judging on Rupaul's Drag Race All Stars or this season's P-Valley on STARZ - the focus to push New Orleans as well as this genre is always at the forefront of her efforts. Without a doubt, she is known for her Big Diva Energy whether she's in the studio or outside of it. We wanted to take some time to find out about what The Queen of Bounce is working on, collaborating with Beyoncé and partnering up with No Kid Hungry to combat food insecurity among children!

ATHLEISURE MAG: You’re known for popularizing the hip hop genre, bounce music. Can you tell us more about what this is and its link to New Orleans?

BIG FREEDIA: Bounce music is a fast-paced call and response style of hip hop that was born in New Orleans in the late 80s and popularized globally in the mid-late 90s with Cash Money Millionaires (Juvenile, Mannie Fresh, Lil Wayne).

AM: You were sampled on Beyoncé’s Formation, but what was it like to collaborate with her on Break My Soul and the video?

BF: Working in any capacity with Beyoncé is incredible. I am always – and still have to pinch myself to see if this is really happening!

AM: New Orleans means a lot to you and you recently partnered with No Kid Hungry X Williams-Sonoma in creating a spatula where proceeds will go to providing funds for children to reduce food insecurity.

Why did you want to participate this year and why was it important for you to be involved?

BF: I feel very strongly about helping the kids of New Orleans. When you don't have enough food, you can’t focus on school or develop properly. So, to me, this is a way to get them the food they need–and help them early.

AM: When you’re not working how do you take time for yourself to recharge your batteries?

BF: To recharge, I have to have nothing on my calendar! I love to cook, hang out with my friends and family.

IG @bigfreedia

PHOTOGRAPHY | PG 136 - 137 Nelson Cosey | 9DRIP PG 60 - 61 Brad Hebert, PG 61 + 63 Nelson Cosey |

Read the AUG ISSUE #80 of Athleisure Mag and see BIG DIVA ENERGY | Big Freedia in mag.

ATHLEISURE MAG #80 | AUG ISSUE

In this month’s issue, our cover story is with World Cup Champion, Juventus F.C. and the France National Team Midfielder footballer, Paul Pogba. We caught up with him to talk about his passion for the game, his excitement to play for Juventus again, what it was like to win the World Cup with the French National team in 2018 and more. With STARZ’s POWER BOOK III: Raising Kanan Season 2 out now, we caught up with the show’s creator Sascha Penn and two of it’s stars Hailey Kilgore and Omar Dorsey to talk about what we can expect, what it’s like getting into that 90’s frame of mind and more. We also interview CFDA jewelry designer Sheryl Lowe of Sheryl Lowe Jewelry. We talk about how she went from a MUA in film/TV to creating this line, creating an additional line MR.LOWE. where her husband Rob Lowe and children have modeled for it and the importance of philanthropy within her collection. This Labor Day Weekend, Electric Zoo is back from Sept 2nd – 4th and we give you a heads up on what you can expect at this year’s festival on Randall’s Island here in NY. We also talk with Cheat Codes, a trio DJ/Producer trio who will also perform at this year’s event. We talk about them drawing 3 albums in under 2 years during the pandemic, how they create their music and their upcoming country project with Dolly Parton, Jimmie Allen and more. We also caught up with The Queen of Bounce, Big Freedia to talk about Bounce, No Kids Hungry and working with Beyonce.

This month’s 9PLAYLIST comes from EDM DJ/Producer Benny Benassi (cover of DEC ISSUE #60) and choreographer, dance fitness founder of the NW Method Nicole Winhoffer has one as well. Our 9DRIP comes from our STARZ’s POWER BOOK III: Raising Kanan’s, Omar Dorsey and the Queen of Bounce, Big Freedia. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes from last month’s JUL ISSUE #79 cover and UFC World Champ and TUF Season 30 winner Julianna Peña. Our The 9LIST STORI3S comes from PGA golfer Justin Thomas and The 9LIST STORI3S comes from Leylah Fernandez, Felix Aliassime and Carlos Alcaraz who will be playing in this year’s US Open.

Our monthly feature, The Art of the Snack shares a stunning spot that’s known for their mussels in the Meat Packing District, Mollusca. This month’s Athleisure List comes from Bear Donut and RANG NYC. As always, we have our monthly roundups of some of our favorite finds.

Read the AUG ISSUE #80.

OUR MUSIC OUR CULTURE | GREG HARRIS + ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME

Music has immense value, from enjoying the song, melody and instruments used, to the artists, performances and remixes there is a much larger scope in terms of what it means to the social fiber and how in many ways it serves as a mirror of who we are, where we want to be and how we are held accountable. It creates a series of feelings and memories that are enlightened and intertwined.

We had the pleasure of talking with the President and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Greg Harris. In addition to their noted Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony which honors a class of musicians across rock & roll, they are known for the museum which is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

We wanted to know more about the museum, how they connect with music enthusiasts around the world and how artists can become eligible for the honor. Greg also shares how he came to this role and how he continues to drive the importance of impact in music.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Before we delve into your work and role at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I’d love to know about your background because I know you were the owner, partner and operator of the Philadelphia Record Exchange. When did you fall in love with music and what was your focus behind opening this retail store?

GREG HARRIS: You know, I grew up, per your readers loving both sports and music! I was fortunate to be raised to play various sports depending on the season with two brothers. On the music side, it just always spoke to me. We always had music in the house and in Philadelphia, the area where I grew up, new music and old music mixed together. So oldies and FM radio were all the same. I got involved a little bit with one of the local public radio stations when I was in high school. Then we had a club near us called City Gardens and it had every live band and we went there as soon as we were old enough to get in! We were there all the time! Then, I went to college in Philadelphia, I went to Temple University and one of my off-campus jobs to help pay for school was the record department of a used bookstore. That’s where the idea came from that the other clerk and I were friends and we realized that the store owner was making a lot more money than we were as the hourly employees!

So we quit and rented out a storefront about a half a block away and we opened our own store. That business has been a great success! I was involved for a couple of years and sold my half to some other people, but my original partner still has it. The Philadelphia Record Exchange has been around for 30 years and it’s an iconic place in the city. Every musician knows it, everybody that is into music when they are in Philly, they find their way to the store and that includes current artists like Kurt Vile and other folks back in the day, like Ahmir Khalib Thompson – Questlove.

I think an important thing to note in terms of looking at my career is that I found out pretty early on that I couldn’t play very well. I could play some guitar, but I was never that great. But I was always better at helping other people market and grow. So the store became that place. We would put concerts on, we’d shut the streets down and do block parties and promotions with artists and other musicians. We just loved helping them succeed and helping our customers find excitement and joy.

AM: It’s so funny, I grew up my dad was a huge record collector and he would slap my hands every time I would try to go to the stereo to play with the records and at my campus at Indiana University, we had 3 record shops near my campus, Tracks was my favorite one. There is something about a record, I love them and when you hear the sound that comes out and the needle hitting the vinyl – it’s an experience. When I read that about you, I thought that’s really cool!

GH: Those stores back then, that was kind of the social network. It's where you met like-minded people that loved the same music or liked similar music. It’s where you learned! You couldn’t Google everything so sometimes the customers taught you and you taught them!

AM: Especially if you were able to come up with crazy imports. I think there’s something about that social fiber when you don’t have that independent local record store. The guy that I would get my music from knew so many things about various artists and had stories to tell and I appreciated it. I don’t remember if they had block parties but it would have been amazing!

GH: I really want to celebrate my original partner, who still has it Jacy Webster and he has given such a gift to Philadelphia music lovers for the last 30+ years, it’s an amazing place!

AM: Another part of your background that’s interesting is I love your focus on curation. To know that you were at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown where you focused on curation was really interesting. Can you tell us about what your role was there, what you did, and why curation was so important?

GH: My first significant museum position was at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I was originally hired to be there Broadcast Media Archivist. My job was to curate the broadcast collection and that was recordings of All-Star games, World Series games, home movies, radio pieces – all the things where that exciting history of baseball is. In museums, they have to take their collections and tell stories with them. You want to tell the stories where you have impact to your visitors and to make those connections and that’s what we did in Cooperstown. You know, it’s an amazing museum. I started in that area, I was fortunate to be able to curate some exhibits and much like the record store, I got involved in business development and fundraising and things like sponsorship and inductee relations. It really helped to grow the business and as I advanced from the collections side of the house, I got more involved in business development and the growth of the enterprise. I spent 14 terrific years there and it was really hard to leave. It’s a wonderful museum. Anyone that has ever played catch in the backyard or Little League, should go to Cooperstown to experience it.

AM: What do you think is the connective tissue between baseball and music and how were you able to move onto the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame where you’re the President and CEO currently?

GH: They’re 2 great places and they’re both so much part of our culture. People have a deep love for both subjects. They make these pilgrimages to Cooperstown or the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. These music and sports evolve and they are the history of our culture – all the good and all the bad comes through and you can tell these stories. On some fronts, you can talk about exclusion and people not being included and you can tell about opportunity opening up. Sometimes it opens up in sport before it opens up to the wider society. These are really important pieces for all of us to learn from to think about and to grow from. Then on the other part from the business side, these museums operate in a very similar way. They each get hundreds of thousands of visitors a year.

We have inductees that are the best of the best individuals, we have broadcast properties, we have important digital engagement with our visitors, we have retail operations and we are places that kind of mean a lot to a lot of people. So they’re very similar from a business sense and it’s just the subject that’s a little bit different. But they are magical places where people learn about their history, themselves and it helps them to better understand the present.

AM: Well can you tell us about the history of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in terms of who founded it and what it’s mission is? I know a lot of people think about it in terms of the amazing induction ceremony, but there are a lot of things that it does.

GH: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame started close to 40 years ago by a group of music industry professionals – the head of Atlantic Records, Ahmet Ertegun and the head of Rolling Stone Magazine, Jann Wenner and others. They conceived it as a special evening celebration for their industries’ best of the best. After doing that for a short period of time, the idea came up to want to build a museum. A bunch of cities looked at it New York, San Francisco, my hometown of Philadelphia – all made a play for it, but Cleveland really stepped up. Cleveland had a great story about rock & roll being important to the city and being an important place for artists who broke in – including David Bowie’s whose first shows in the US were in Cleveland, Jimi Hendrix when he came back from England – his first shows were there, Rush’s first shows were there. Also a DJ named Alan Freed was playing music in the early 50’s and inspiring young people – so they had this great story! But, they showed up and had a business plan. They said this is how we’re going to build it and how we’re going to fund it and this is what it is going to mean to the region. Long and short, 27 years ago we opened up in this I.M. Pei building on the shores of Lake Eerie in Ohio. Since opening our doors, over 13 million people have visited the museum and we’re at the height of our summer season now. We'll get thousands of people through everyday all summer long. Every one of those people who comes through the front door has a lifetime of memory connected to the subjects inside our museum. When they see it, they hear it or hear it through a band that plays on our stage, it inspires them and makes them think of the people they were with and the places that they were at, the greatest week of college, the time their heart was broken, the greatest road trip that they took and they might even hear a song that reminds them of their mom, dad or siblings.

AM: So when you say rock & roll, what genres comprise this very broad title?

GH: It’s a big title and quite frankly, our definition is a very big tent. Rock & roll is more about attitude and spirit then it is about a specific sound. We embrace in the 50’s Doo-Wop, Street Corner Harmony and RockabIlly; in the 60’s there’s Psychedelic, Soul music, Folk music; in the 70’s there’s Heavy Metal, Hip-Hop, Dance Music, Disco, Punk Rock – it’s all under the umbrella of rock & roll. Synth Pop and Industrial – we embrace it all! So for us, it’s all about attitude and spirit! There’s an attitude about Johnny Cash that he had to the music industry and when Ice Cube was inducted, a couple of years ago, In his induction speech, he said, “rock & roll is a spirit, rock & roll is an attitude.” You can find his full quote online. (Editor’s Note: When Ice Cube was inducted, he talked about whether a rap group was considered to be rock & roll. He said, “Now the question is, are we rock & roll? And I say you goddam right we rock & roll. Rock & roll is not an instrument, rock & roll is not even a style of music. Rock & roll is a spirit. It’s a spirit. It’s been going since the blues, jazz, bebop, soul R&B, rock & roll, heavy metal, punk rock and yes, hip-hop. And what connects us all is that spirit. That’s what connects us all, that spirit. Rock & roll is not conforming to the people who came before you, but creating your own path in music and in life. That is rock & roll, and that is us. So rock & roll is not conforming. Rock & roll is outside the box. And rock & roll is N.W.A. I want to thank everybody who helped induct us into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and I just want to tell the world – Damn, that shit was dope.”) That is what we embrace. It’s the voice of change, it’s always been the sound of young America and it continues to evolve and as a museum, we continue to evolve with it.

AM: So as music continues to evolve, you will always look for new forms and elements to add to what rock & roll is.

GH: We will and that’s kind of the wave right now. That’s why we have been inducting great Hip-Hop artists right alongside great Heavy Metal artists. In the last induction, it was LL Cool J, and it was Carole King, it was the Foo Fighters, Jay-Z and Tina Turner that were all inducted! To us, it’s a broad tent and everybody’s welcome!

AM: What are your 3 favorite rock genres that you love listening to?

GH: I look for stuff that’s a little harsher, a little stronger. I love old Blues, I love 60’s Soul like Memphis and I love Punk Rock! I like for it to have a little punch and a little attitude.

AM: I can see that!

GH: Yeah, that’s what I prefer.

AM: What is your day-to-day like in your role and what are the key projects that you’re focused on?

GH: My day-to-day role is 1 – to make sure that we have the greatest museum in the world, that every single visitor that comes through our doors leaves being transformed and impacted and that we have a great team that makes that happen. It’s about keeping our staff inspired and changing. We don’t believe in maintenance mode, we always want to be growing and reaching. To that end, we're working on an amazing expansion project at the museum. We’ll be breaking ground later on this year. We will be increasing the museum by about 50,000 sqft. It’s a great project and we’re very excited to be doing it. For that project, one of my biggest responsibilities is to work with a team and to raise the funds to be able to do that. We talked about how there have been 13 million visitors that have been through the museum for the past 27 years. We need to build something for the next 13 million visitors!

AM: What can guests expect when they do come to visit and then for those that aren't available to come in person, is there an online version where people can connect that way?

GH: Yeah, so I’ll back up a little bit to your question of what do we do. So, we have this great museum and then in addition to this great museum, we have this great digital outreach. So anybody in the world can connect with us and they can experience the Hall of Fame, but also if there are teachers out there, we have ready teaching materials that they can use for free. Pre COVID, we averaged 50 teachers a day using it, during COVID it was about 500 to 1,000 a day and we have reached over 1 million students last year with our online education programs. We would love it if teachers would use it and help spread the word! We’re not teaching kids how to play instruments or to write songs, we’re teaching them math, science, social justice all through the lens of rock & roll.

AM: That’s really cool! It’s a large job!

GH: Oh yeah. We have a really great team and we’re cranking through!

When someone walks onsite at the museum, the experience starts when you’re in the building. You’re going to hear music blasting from speakers, it might be a live band on stage outdoors or it might just be coming out of our PA speakers. In the museum, you can see the whole history of rock & roll – from Blues, gospel and country through the Beatles, Stones, Supremes, James Brown, Motown and all of that. On our 2nd floor, you can play on instruments and jam with your friends. If bands visit us and they want to jam with visitors – they can do that. On our 3rd floor, you can walk through our Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and see the greats of music where they are immortalized forever in our Hall of Fame and experience our immersive theater that has an amazing show that was edited with the great Jonathan Demme and it’s really the greatest moments from the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductions. So really, that’s some of the things you do and throughout it all, you’re reminded of times in your life that you listened to certain music, the greatest road trip, your Freshman year in college, who you hung out with and we bring all of those memories back and that’s the real power of our place.

AM: Going back to the expansion, what will that involve?

GH: We are keeping the whole I.M. Pei pyramid as is and that’s 128,000 sqft and we’re going to add another 50,000 sqft. You know the Pei Pyramid, the only other pyramid that he has done was at the Louvre which is truly the center of Europe’s great art as it’s the home of Mona Lisa. His only other pyramid is here in America at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and we’re the home of America’s great art rock and roll.

AM: That expansion is going to be huge as that’s 175,000 sqft!

GH: Pretty close give or take!

AM: That’s a lot of space.

GH: Well it’s a big subject!

AM: What are 3 of your favorite exhibits that are at the museum?

GH: I love the Garage Exhibit where visitors can come in and jam with each other it’s amazing.

We finished an exhibit that I liked a lot that I think is particularly interesting to your readers. That was an exhibit that we did about the greatest Halftime Show Performances in Super Bowl history. We had it at the museum when we hosted the NFL Draft in Cleveland. Then we worked with the NFL and we took it out to the Super Bowl in LA this year and we’re working with them again to take out to Phoenix for the next Super Bowl.

It shows performances and great moments by Prince when he did Purple Rain in the rain, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé – it’s just these iconic moments in American cultural history that happened at the Super Bowl Halftime performance it’s just a really great exhibit.

We have an exhibit which really is the legends of rock and each band has a focus area. That focus area could be David Bowie, Elton John, Michael Jackson – they all have an area that highlights their career. And that’s an exciting area to walk through and to be reminded of these individuals and their wider impact on our culture.

AM: What’s the process for acquiring items for the museum?

GH: We work directly with the inductees and pretty much everything we have at the museum has been donated by an inductee, a family member or the artist directly. We make sure to partner with them. They donate to us and occasionally it’s a loaned item if they still need it! We’ve had artifacts that are on exhibit that an artist needs back because they're touring so a guitar goes out to them and a label says, “currently on tour.”

AM: For those that are in town, how many live shows do you have a year?

GH: We have live music probably about 100 shows a year at the museum. This summer, every Thurs and Fri, we’ll have live music and some of the bands that are still coming this summer – Guided By Voices, Adrian Belew is playing and people can go to RockHall.com to check out what we have going on. There’s all different genres and one of the things that’s important to us is that we just don’t put up a party band that plays cover songs. We want original artists playing original music and we want to mix it up between the different genres whether it’s bands that are heavy metal, classic rock sounding or if they’re Hip-Hop. We love having all of them at the museum and they will be playing outdoors on our plaza.

AM: Like many, I am a fan of music. My great uncle was Joe Henderson a tenor saxophonist, I love various genres of music and here at Athleisure Mag as well as outside projects I have styled a number of known artists or have interviewed them. I know that our readers would love to know more about what goes into the induction of artists for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. What are the eligibility requirements?

GH: Artists have had to have made a record 25 years ago to make them eligible for consideration. And then, it’s really impact and influence. You look at did they take the art form in a new direction, did they push the envelope and that’s what they’re recognized for more than chart placement and sales. The process is, there is a ballot made for all those that were nominated. It then goes out to our voters and the largest voting body is all the other inductees. This year, Jay-Z is going to get a ballot, Bono gets a ballot, Smokey Robinson gets a ballot, Madonna gets a ballot, Bruce Springsteen and members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers – they all get ballots. So they vote and the top 5 vote getters are elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

AM: I like that the public is also allowed to join in the fun – why was this an element that has been added to the process?

GH: So the fan vote is interesting. During the year, we let fans in the museum voice who should be nominated. It’s always fun to hear that and to understand that. Then when the voting is underway with all of the inductees, we also do a public fan vote and part of it is engagement so that they can engage with us online and let us know who their favorites are. Then we take all the fan votes online and we aggregate them and they count as a composite ballot into the bigger vote. So what it is important for is to see who people are interested in and to understand what they are thinking about. Because the induction into the Hall of Fame is not a popularity contest, those that are in the industry and have made their living off of rock & roll, their votes are really what counts the most because they can judge the merits of their peers. If that wasn’t the case, whoever has the most social media followers would be elected and that doesn’t necessarily mean they they are the most impactful, it just means that they have great music and great followers. We need that impact.

AM: When the nominees are announced, I am sure there are a number of logistics to figure out from who will accept an award for the artist/group if they have passed away and who will perform if there are other artists that will do a tribute versus those that opt to play themselves. Can you tell us more about that?

GH: The show producers are amazing! It’s our Foundation President, Joel Peresman and our Foundation Chairman, John Sykes and they do an amazing job working to create a show that is dynamic and exciting and also appropriate for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. They have done a super job working with the show, the production design team and sometimes at its greatest when it’s an artist from yesterday that is being honored by an artists of today and when they perform together – when you have Stevie Wonder inducting Bill Withers and then they sing together and then John Legend comes out and performs with them – it’s amazing! When LL Cool J was inducted, LL was joined by Eminem and by JLo. Just an incredible combination. It’s a desire to allow some artists to pay tribute to those that have influenced them and it’s a chance for other artists to combine that they have meant a lot to. So it’s kind of a neat looking back and looking forward and making something that is even better for that moment in time at that event.

AM: As we’re based in NY, it’s always fun when the ceremony is in our backyard, but for the upcoming 2022 induction ceremony, it will be in LA this fall. Why is it being held there and what is behind the decision of the city that you opt to do it in?

GH: Well there are rock & roll fans everywhere and let’s face it, NY is a big center for music and LA is the home of much of the industry. So those 2 cities make a ton of sense and we also do it in Cleveland which is the home of the museum and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We’re working on a sequence where it goes on between those cities and we’re really excited and honored that Cleveland is in that cadence and we’re looking at how that pans out in future years. We’re really excited and thrilled to be going to LA as it hasn’t been there since 2013!

AM: Looking at this year’s inductees, I was excited about all the names but especially pleased to see that Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, Eminem, Lionel Richie and Dolly Parton are in this year’s group – what are you looking forward to this year?

GH: You know, they’re all terrific and they’re all deserving! I’m looking forward to just being surprised. Every year there are super highlights and it’s amazing as this honor isn't about haing 1 hit record or having a great soundtrack song or something like that. This is a lifetime award that is emblematic of excellence and forever they will be celebrated and enshrined at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This is a really powerful moment for those artists and I can’t wait to hear their speeches and then to see them light up the room with their performances.

AM: I know we talked about the educational elements that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is involved in throughout the year. Are there other community programs that takes place throughout the year?

GH: We have a program called Toddler Rock where kids from First Start Programs come to the museum twice a week and we teach them for 15 weeks on rhyming, alliteration, and social skills with trained music therapists. It’s amazing. We have another program where anyone who lives in the city of Cleveland can come in for free admission all year long, everyday – whenever – just come on in! It’s a great community outreach for us and we love partnering with our conventions and business bureaus and other entities around town. When the city is bidding on and trying to attract the NBA All Star Game or the MLB All Star Game, we are in the mix. We are part of the hosting committee and we pledge to be a great partner and frequently they theme the event rock & roll because it is Cleveland. We love doing that and we think that if our reach can do well, then everyone can do well and we want to make that happen.

AM: In terms of the remainder of this year and looking forward to next year, what are you looking to do in terms of outreach and education on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

GH: One, we need to execute on an amazing summer season which is what we are doing. We want to keep going with all of our educational initiatives. We have a traveling exhibitions program where certain exhibits once they are in Cleveland will go out to cities around the country. We're actively working on this building expansion project which is a significant endeavor for the museum and we’re very excited. We have been ramping up our digital presence and we have been adding a lot of Spanish language to what we are doing in our digital outreach. There is a massive group of people that love rock & roll that don’t speak English and we’re very excited to reach out to those audiences as well who do speak English.

IG @rockhall

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Read the JUL ISSUE #79 of Athleisure Mag and see OUR MUSIC OUR CULTURE | Greg Harris + Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in mag.

VACATION VIBES | LA LA ANTHONY

It's always fun to touch base with those that we have interviewed previously. La La Anthony is a woman who is always on the go, whether she's on our favorite shows The Chi, POWER and Black Mafia Family. She's always fresh off of wrapping a project and in plans for the next one. In addition, she has always been an entrepreneur and earlier this year, she launched her hair care line, INALA which focuses on strengthening and providing our follicles much needed nutrients.

We caught up with her to talk about these projects as well as as how she tries to find those moments where she can recharge! She looped us in on what we should keep an eye out for, finding balance and how she enjoys vacation vibes year around!

ATHLEISURE MAG: We have always been a fan of your projects whether it’s The Chi, POWER and obviously more recently, Black Mafia Family.

LA LA ANTHONY: Oh thank you!

AM: We can’t wait to see the upcoming season. What made you decide that you wanted to be part of the show and what do you love about playing your character, Markaisha Taylor?

LLA: You know, I love Black Mafia Family because it’s a true story which just gives it a different depth and different layers! I knew about them and I had heard about them – Meech and Terry, so now being able to be part of their story is just so incredible! Obviously, 50 Cent is the producer who also produced POWER so, I always you know love working with 50 and he’s also one of my closest friends. So that was 2 of the main reasons that I wanted to be on-board and the character will really get introduced in the 2nd season and you’ll really see a lot of her and the relationships that develop over time. I think that people are really going to be into it.

AM: Is there anything that you can tell us about the upcoming season or will we need to wait until September?

LLA: You definitely have to wait! These things stay super under wraps! But we did finish filming so now things are just being edited and I think that it’s going to be an incredible season and I think that people are just going to be really excited for it.

AM: Since you are always involved in so many things, are there other TV or film projects that you have going on that we need to keep an eye out for?

LLA: I have a Netflix movie coming out with Gabrielle Union and that should be out at the top of the year. I also have a Netflix movie with Jonah Hill, Lauren London, Nia Long that’s coming out probably around the top of the year. Kenya Barris directed that one. There are some projects in the can that will start coming out and that’s always exciting when you can start off the new year with some new projects and things like that!

AM: Absolutely and with such amazing names and great casts for both of those.

Earlier this year, you launched INALA. Why did you create this line and what does the name mean?

LLA: INALA is my real name backwards – my real name is Alani so it’s a cool spin on that. It was something that was important to me because I worked on it when we were spending a lot of time at home during the pandemic. I really experimented a lot with rice water and saw amazing benefits to my hair when I was making the rice water at home. I was like, how can I bring this to people out there and really help with hair growth, hair strength, edges and all of that stuff. Especially with people who wear wigs, weaves, braids and protective styles all the time that we do to save and preserve our hair. I worked with some experts and came up with INALA and the Power Potion has been amazing and the results have been great. We have the Reset Rinse and now we’re working on just launching some new products because everything has been so great and people have been loving the results and have been really happy about everything.

AM: I think rice water is amazing and I have been a long time skincare fan of Japanese and Korean Beauty skin products that use this in it. So what is the benefit of using rice water as it pertains to hair?

LLA: It’s just known to help with strengthening hair. It’s known to help with hair growth, keeping hair to have a luscious glow to it – it’s literally like I say that rice water is just magic! The rice grain itself contains all of these nutrients that are essential for all this that I’m talking about. So what we did is put ours along with the 100% rice complex. It has biotin in it and different vitamins and minerals that really boost your hair growth and hair strength. The results have been crazy! When you see before and after pictures and people start talking about their experience with the products, it’s been really amazing.

AM: Because you have your hand in a number of pots, how do you take advantage of the summer and take time for yourself?

LLA: That’s something that I’m still working on. Because I am so busy and I do need to find that balance so it’s something I’m working on. You know, I have a trip coming up with my son soon and it’s just going to be him and I. It’ll be a couple of days where he and I will be able to be off the grid and to have some fun with him. I’m really looking forward to that. I did tell myself that in August and in some of September, I do want to do a bit more traveling mostly with my son and kind of just disconnect from work for a little while. You know, I was on BMF and as soon as it wrapped, I did an independent film called Water Boys and just finished that so I haven’t had so much downtime at all. So, I really feel like it’s important to have a healthy balance!

AM: You partnered again with Baileys and helped them with the National Colada day which was on July 10th. How can we continue to celebrate that and what did you do to enjoy all the amazingness that is the Colada?

LLA: Well see, I don’t take a lot of vacations! So what I love about Baileys Colada is that it gives you vacation vibes wherever you’re at. It’s just one of those things that when you taste it, in your mind, you’re on a beautiful island somewhere or laying up doing absolutely nothing. I think that that’s how we’re able to continue celebrate it no matter where you are or what you’re doing. You can bring the beach vibes and the vacation vibes to you by having it for sure!

AM: What were your inspirations behind the cocktails that you created?

LLA: I love the versatility of them and it was based on my Puerto Rican roots which I love. The Piña Colada which a lot of people don’t know this, the Piña Colada originated in Puerto Rico, so it all kind of went hand in hand, so when I came to them with the idea, they loved it and were so receptive that I definitely wanted to bring my roots into it. So we came up with the 3 cocktails and I feel like it’s a nod to my culture, my heritage and it’s just really cool to be able to bring all of that together.

IG @lala

PHOTO CREDITS | Baileys Colada

ATHLEISURE MAG | #79 JUL ISSUE

In this month’s issue, our cover story is with UFC Bantamweight Champion and first woman to win The Ultimate Fighter, Julianna Peña. We’re rooting for her as she prepares for her title rematch fight with Amanda Nunes tomorrow in Dallas for UFC 277. We talk about how she got into MMA, how she trains, the upcoming match and the importance of balancing her life as an athlete and a mom. We also interview CEO/President Greg Harris of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. We talk about his career in the music and sport industries and what led him to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the importance of music, the museum and the upcoming Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee ceremony. We also interview actress, best selling author and entrepreneur, La La Anthony on her upcoming season of STARZ’s Black Mafia Family, her haircare line INALA and how she is taking more time for herself. This month, we also share this season’s No Kid Hungry X Williams Sonoma spatulas that feature an array of people including Ina Garten, Big Freedia and more. We also share some of our favorite looks from Paraiso Miami Swim that took place earlier this month.

This month’s 9PLAYLIST comes from EDM DJ/Producer Yves V. Our 9DRIP comes from our cover, Julianna Peña. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes from choreographer and dance fitness trainer Nicole Winhoffer. Our 9LIST STORI3S comes from La La Anthony.

Our monthly feature, The Art of the Snack shares Greek-Mediterranean restaurant, Limani NY. This month’s Athleisure List comes from AZILO Ultra Pool at SAHARA Las Vegas and Beatnic at Montauk Beach House. As always, we have our monthly roundups of some of our favorite finds.

Read the JUL ISSUE #79 of Athleisure Mag.

GOVERNORS BALL

Here in NY, we know that the summer season has really gotten underway when Governors Ball's 3 day music festival comes to the city. Held at Citi Field Stadium, fans came to enjoy hearing an array of artists that represent those in hip hop, pop, rock and more. Acts performed across 3 stages: GOVBALL NYC presented by Verizon, GOPUFF Stage and Bacardi Stage. Performances included J. Cole, Kid Cudi, Becky G, Jazmine Sullivan, Playboi Carter, Tove Lo, DIESEL, Halsey, Coi Leray, A$AP Ferg and Jack Harlow to name a few.

In between waiting for the next act, there were plently of options to keep them engaged from Instagrammable areas, staying hydrated at the ElectroLit Zone, Casa Bacardi to enjoy their classic canned beverages and so much more.

This season those who couldn't attend were also about to watch virtually via Governors Ball Livestream on Twitch which was presented by Levi's 501's as well as via the radio on SiriusXM's app to keep the good vibes going.

With high energy all around, here are some of our favorite moments as we count the days down to Governors Ball 2023!

IG @govballnyc

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 110 - 111 Aaron Rickets | PG 1112 - 113 + 116 - 117 Paigge Warton | PG 114 - 115 Greg Noire | PG 118 - 119 Charles Reagan | PG 120 - 121 Roger Ho | PG 122 - 123 Mickey Pierre - Louis |

Read the JUN ISSUE #78 of Athleisure Mag and see Governors Ball in mag.

9PLAYLIST | SKIP MARLEY

Read the JUN ISSUE #78 of Athleisure Mag and see 9PLAYLIST | Skip Marley in mag.

ATHLEISURE MAG | #78 JUN ISSUE

In this month’s issue, our cover story is with Kenji Fujishima, Head of Cultivation at Dr. Greenthumb and Insane OG Brand. We talk about how he befriended B-Real (SEP ISSUE #69 cover) over martial arts training, being on the road with Cypress Hill and growing cannabis together to become legends in cannabis culture. We also talk with Nicky Rodriguez, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s star who’s known as the Black Belt Slayer. He talks about upcoming matches and his fight with Team Insane at Subversiv 7 this past month. We catch up with storyteller, actress and producer Alysia Reiner (JUN ISSUE #18 cover) who talks with us about how she approaches her projects, being in Ms. Marvel, upcoming projects and how we can maintain the need for wonder. We also catch up with Chef David Rose who talks with us about his love for grilling, how cookbook EGGIN’ and how we can make sure that we’re always grill ready with Omaha Steaks. We also talk with pop artist Betty Who and Executive Producer and Showrunner of Prime Video’s The One That Got Away, Elan Gale. We talk about this social experiment series which allows for those to find if someone in their past may be the one for them. We talk about the show, the importance of relationships and what this show aims to represent.

This month’s 9PLAYLIST comes from EDM DJ/Producers Aname as well as Skip Marley. Our 9DRIP comes from our cover, Kenji Fujishima. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes EDM DJ/Producer Plastic Funk. Our 9LIST STORI3S comes from Alysia Reiner.

Our monthly feature, The Art of the Snack shares Indian restaurant, Jaz in NYC’s Hell’s Kitchen. This month’s Athleisure List comes from Atzaro Beach in Ibiza and Bagel + Slice in LA. As always, we have our monthly roundups of some of our favorite finds.

Read the JUN ISSUE #78 here.

STORING SEEDS | JB SMOOVE

We're all about big energy while keeping it real and J.B. Smoove is both of these! You know when you see him on the stage or on your screen that he's going to make you laugh, think and give you his philosphy on life and how to approach it - all while rocking great style. We've enjoyed seeing him in a number of films from Pootie Tang, Barbershop: The Next Cut, the Spider-Man franchise and more. He's also been in numerous TV series from The Last O.G., Woke and of course Curb Your Enthusiasm. He's someone that you see everywhere and yet he aligns perfectly with the projects that we see him in.

We had to check in with him to find out about his journey from being a standup comedian, SNL writer and performer, actor and more. He talked about how he honed his skills, how he navigates his career and what he has coming up.

ATHLEISURE MAG: What was the moment that you realized that you wanted to be an entertainer?

J.B. SMOOVE: You know, I’ve always been the one – some people have a high threshold for pain, I think that that’s what it is. In simple terms, I think that I have this thing and feel for people when I know that people need laughter and they need communication. They need all these fun things that make life easier.

I remember one time that I missed my flight because somebody stopped me and I could tell that this dude needed somebody to talk to about his dreams and I missed my damn flight! I felt like, damn I’ll get the next one. In that moment, it just felt like something was - like sometimes you just have to talk people off the ledge in some sense you know? It’s their life, it’s their everything, but sometimes what you provide for people is something that you can’t buy. I think that shows that you’re a real person and it shows you that you can reach out and touch that person. What I promote is real!

You know how fans get, sometimes they don’t believe that you are who you are or who they think you are, or who they perceive you to be by what you do on camera. You know how it is. Nowadays, the world is faster, people promote certain things, but that’s not who they are. They do things to be accepted, to be liked, to be all these things and it’s not real and it doesn’t come from a real place. I think for me and my upbringing from where I started from is something that I can appreciate more. I’m talking about the days from pulling over and having to make a phone call at the phone booth! Those days, it was more hands on – you know what I mean? There’s automatic transmission and then there’s manual – I’m a manual dude! I got to switch gears for myself. I need to know when to slow down and when to hit the brake! Sometimes I don’t brake at all! Most of the time, I’m just changing gears because brake means that I’m going to stop. When you’re changing gears, I’m just navigating through it! You know what I mean? It’s different!

AM: And it is different!

I think that you have such an authenticity about you and that’s why people love being able to see you. It’s great to see you popping on screen in your shows or starting up my Mon with your podcast. I know that when I hear you, I’m going to get you as an authentic full experience!

JBS: Yes indeed! And that, you know to answer the question – that is something that I do from the heart and for the love of what I do! For the love of being in the moment, for the love of something to hold onto that knowledge and to hold onto that laughter! Holding onto things that makes me happy – it’s the ability to benefit the world or the people who also want to do what I do or just want to be inspired. I do think that it applies to every walk of life no matter what your occupation is or what your dreams are, the same process applies. Come early, stay late, be courteous to people, respect their dreams and what they're trying to do – don’t waste their time, don’t waste your time. There are certain things that will apply always. I think that is the core of growth and the core of achieving your dreams. What I want to do is to be consistent. I want to give this laughter away whether you’re paying me or if you’re not paying for it. I don’t get paid if I stop and talk to someone for half an hour and miss my flight. I can’t say, “oh I got paid for that so it’s ok I missed the flight.” No, I’m doing that because I felt something for this person in that moment that they needed this quick little talk and it’s free.

AM: How did you hone your craft?

JBS: You know, being in real situations. Real situations are a comedian's food. That’s our food. Real situations, you can elaborate on real situations and make them funny. You can take pain and make it funny. You can take funny and make it funnier. So you know, it’s all in the construction of the joke, the construction of the situation, the construction of the scene – you know? That is where it comes from. I always say that anyone can tell a joke if I have to use what I do for a living. Anybody can tell a joke, but not everyone can sell a joke. Everybody can’t sell it – you can tell it – but everybody can’t sell it!

AM: I am the worst joke teller because I forget the parts, I have to stop and reset it – so I definitely can’t sell it.

JBS: Oh yeah, that’s true!

AM: I remember when I first saw you for Def Comedy Jam as a standup comedian and then you went onto SNL as a writer and a performer! What was that experience like?

JBS: To me it was great. But again, you gotta make decisions on your movement because when I started on Def Comedy Jam and I was on BET and did all of these TV shows, guest-starring, touring in colleges, those road gigs, tours and all of the things that I have done, making the decision to move to LA, doing all of that stuff and making the decision to go on Cedric the Entertainer Presents, getting on Lyricists Lounge Show – doing guest spots on TV shows, doing my first CBS deal – all those things I’ve done.

Then to sit there and say, “ok I have this audition for SNL.” My second time auditioning for SNL actually. I did it twice. I was going for cast member. For me, you sit there and you say, I’m going in for cast member and I didn’t make the show as a performer but I ended up making the show as a writer. Even when I got the offer for a writer, I was in the middle of a deal for a host of stuff of my own so I had to say do I put myself on hold to work on Saturday Night Live? So I sat and thought about it and decided that it would look great on my resume so I said, as more of a business move. I know that the percentage of shows that actually air are so small and back then it was REALLY hard! Back then we didn’t have streaming services. We didn’t have Netflix and Hulu and Amazon. We didn’t have any of this stuff. It was just regular TV, HBO and Showtime. We had the premium channels but those opportunities, we didn’t have as big of a chance to get someone to air. I had to sit there and say, “ok. If I put this to the side and do this, how can I make this work for me?” I said, I will do this and then figure it out later. But this is going to look great on my resume – SNL.

So I came to SNL and when I got here, I ended up doing sketches, I ended up being a writer on the show, I ended up doing monologues on the show and ended up doing all these amazing things for the show and doing warmups for my 3 seasons. So I ended up doing a lot of stuff and that was 4 different checks – that’s a NY hustle right there! But that’s also being someone who has different skills – who can be a utility person – 4 things at the same time. That helps me and shows how I can be versatile. I can do 4 jobs at once.

For me, it worked out perfect. I had the chance to be JB, I had a chance to be someone who's able to do all of these amazing things and at the same time, it allowed me to work and build my resume and network with these amazing guest stars of the show. So it was definitely a process. I can’t say that it was easy – it was hard work because you’re talking about someone going from being a standup comedian to being a writer. I wasn’t a traditional writer. I improvise a lot in my standup so for me it made more sense to take it, do all of my skills under one roof. I did 3 seasons over there and it looks great on my resume, so it served its purpose doing it that way.

None of those other opportunities went away, the opportunities for TV shows were still there, the opportunities for movies were still there and I was still able to leave there and do a bunch of movies – The Sitter, Hall Pass, Date Night all in a row. I got a chance to do all of that stuff and when I was working over at SNL, I did Conan O’Brien. Conan O’Brien’s show, he was still at NBC at that time and I did his show as a sketch artist 10 times. So I had a chance to get from behind the desk typing jokes, go downstairs on the elevator and do a sketch with Conan and then get back in the elevator upstairs to finish working. I got a chance to do so many things while I was over there. Again, it wasn’t easy and it was humbling in some sense. You’re in control on stage but you’re not in control on this show which is live TV. Everything is just fast. You have to sit there and write all night long for these sketches and it’s humbling because it’s like your trying out for the cheerleading team or the football team and you go in the hallway and they put the list up of who made the team. There was a piece of paper in the hallway that said whose sketch made it and you had to read that list on the wall and you’d say, "damn, I didn’t get it."

AM: Oh wow that happened every week!

JBS: It was an amazing experience and I wouldn't change that for anything in the world. I would have rather taken this process that I have already completed rather than this fast and quick process that these young people are doing now. I had more time to smell the roses.

AM: I’m a huge fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, you joined it in the 6th season and I know that the 12th season is coming back, how did you get attached to the show and how involved are you in creating and evolving the character of Leon Black?

JBS: Oh man! My wife told me that I was going to be on the show. We would watch the show, we loved the show and even when I was on SNL, we would talk about the show on our writing days. One day I said, that I would love to be on the show and man I got the opportunity. I always say that one thing has to step out of the way in order for something else to come through. I didn’t get renewed for my 4th season of SNL and I literally went from coming to LA for a friend’s memorial – my friend Oji Pierce who composed and produced This is How We Do It and I was there for his memorial service. I make moves because I trust my process and I trust my talent. I know I always bounce back from things. I had actually fired my agent – I fired every damn body! I knew that once I fired them, I wasn’t going back to SNL.

The agents are the ones that fight for you and keep you hired. They are the ones that call and make it go. I said, well if I fire my agent who I am not happy with, I know for a fact, that I will not get spoken about and they’re not going to push to keep me on the show if they’re not getting paid to do what they do. So I said, “well, I’m going to see what happens.” I fired them and I knew I wasn’t going back and for a fact that with no one there to speak for me, there was no way that I was going to be able to stay at SNL.

So I took that chance, I rolled the dice and I took that chance. Low and behold, I didn’t get renewed. I was out on the road for a month doing standup. Oji passed away, my wife already told me that I was going to be on Curb Your Enthusiasm and I got a phone call of my friend passing and I went to LA for one day. I signed with a new agent before I went to LA, went to meet them when I got to LA and one of the agents said, “man, I have an audition for you – how long are you in town?” I told them that I had come into town for 1 day to pay respects to my buddy and I was going back tomorrow.

He said he had an audition for me and I asked him what it was for and he said, Curb Your Enthusiasm. I said, “get out of here, you have to be kidding me!” I went on the audition and you know, I did what I did well which is improvise which takes these scenes and make them my own. Let me do what I do because I’m going to do what I do! Me and Larry hit it off in the audition. We hit it off to the point where we were in there laughing our butts off and having a good time. We became friends that day. I left there and said to myself, if someone gets that job, God bless them, but me and that man had a great time! That leads to me being on the greatest improvised show to me in TV history.

So, my process is, I’m an improv guy. I have been improvising my entire life and I think that that’s a life choice too. Improvising gives you the ability to change your mind in the moment where no one will ever know that you changed your mind! Improvising will give you the ability to sway someone in a different direction. Improvising gives you a way of reading energy and reading their body language – all of these great things that you can do by knowing the process and being able to improvise. It pays off in life, it pays off in acting, it pays off in real estate sales if you’re a realtor. You can be anyone you want, but if you improvise just a little bit, it allows you to pick up little nuances about people that you can use to your advantage.

I think that that’s what helps me so much having to improvise in my standup career so much. It really allowed me to take that skill and to use that 1 little improv class that I took that summer before I started doing standup. I would tell anyone that they should take improv – I don’t care what you do. That allowed me to really hone in on my acting skills and to get in the moment which makes my standup shows so different. I’m literally listening to what this particular audience is laughing at which is what I apply to Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Whatever is working for my character and sometimes, I don’t know what I will do with my character. Sometimes I don’t know. Sometimes I just go with what the scene is and I take that. Sometimes what I do is, I will decide in the moment if I want to have Larry’s back or if I want to go against Larry. I decide right there, do I want to be on Larry’s side or will I go against him – what is the better argument here? I really decide in the moment and it gives me the upper hand and let’s me drive that. It also lets me give him something new that he doesn’t know about the character every time I work with him. That way, I create these forks in the road – these branches to the character. My character has never been defined. We still don’t know where the hell he came from – so for me to be able to make that up over the 6 seasons that I have been there is great! I can still tell people a little more that they need to know about Leon which makes it fun!

AM: You have been in so many series and films from Spider-Man movies, co-hosting – what do you look for when you’re sent projects and what goes into your decision on whether you’re going to participate in something?

JBS: I go by this, which works for me: I read the script of course. If they specifically call for me, I’m kind of past the audition process at this point because I am established all these years. I get offers for things and I can say yay or nay to the offer. Once in a while, I have to read for something – once in a while. It could be something very specific or something that is outside of my lane and it’s to show that I can do something if it’s a drama or something like that. If I meet a director or a producer and they ask for me specifically and they say that they want me to make my character my own, that is the most precious words that I can hear for an improv guy or a guy that they can trust to do that character. When they say, “make the character your own JB. We love your voice and your sensibilities and we love what you do and we want you to be that character and vice versa.” So I’m like cool, let me make it my own and I take that character and I make them my own. This happens in movies, in TV, in commercials, in animations – it doesn’t matter. They let me do me and if it’s animations, I say let me see the character so I can see who it is and then I can take that character and then I can make that character my own.

AM: You also have Four Courses with JB Smoove, why did you want to do this?

JBS: You know what. I love talk shows and I love talking to friends and I’m good at it. I love to sit there and kick it and have a convo with people and that is what makes interviewing people so fun. I’m curious of the process. I’m curious about your path and I’m really engaged. I love to laugh and I love the stories. I love to tell stories and I love to be interviewed while I’m interviewing – you know what I’m saying? I think that’s fun. I love to be interviewed while I’m interviewing.

AM: Last year when May I Elaborate? first came out, I knew I would be obsessed with it. I love hearing you and Miles Grose talking back and forth about various topics and it was a great way to start my day. Why did you want to create this podcast show?

JBS: You know what? It was one of those things where everybody was doing podcasts. I knew that if everyone was doing podcasts, I had to do something that was funny, insightful and I like to give what I call, broken wisdom sometimes! I feel like there’s more than 1 way for you to be able to get it. For some people, you have to shake it out of their ass and then you have to shake it into them and then shake whatever the issue is out of them at the same time. I think of that tough hard love in a funny way and in a way that makes sense to people. I’m giving it to you in a way that is like a friend. I’m not a doctor, I don’t know it all, I know a lot about everything and a little bit about nothing. You need that balance! You have to tell people sometimes that, “I’m not sure but God damn, I know you got to give it to them like that and here’s what I would do.” I can’t say it’s going to work, but this is what I would do and this is how to get the process started. You sometimes have to get out of your own fucking head. If I can get you out of your own head, I’m halfway there! That’s the block right there. You’re like a controlled schizophrenic – you are battling yourself in your own head. Different versions of you don’t know how to handle certain things. So you’re stuck in a certain place and you just need to find some kind of way to talk to the right person in your head to get it moving in the right direction.

AM: With the 2nd season dropping last month, what can we expect for the season going forward? Last season was really long as it was everyday which was great. This season, the format is a little different with it being on Mon and you guys have more personalities that are joining you each week like Tiffany Haddish, Kevin Nealon and Randall Park. What can we look forward to?

JBS: In the 1st season, we did almost 190 episodes! Which is crazy! So, we will more than likely maybe transition this amazing podcast into possibly an animated version – we’re not sure yet. We think that the wisdom is funny enough and the visuals that I give Miles and that Miles gives me, you always want to see it and I think that there is a funny way to present this show.

It’s so funny, we got nominated for a podcast award but guess what? We didn’t get nominated in the comedy category. We got nominated in the inspirational and religious category which is crazy! We got nominated with all the gurus and people who are speaking real shit. We’re taking real things and just elaborating on them in a funny way and we get put in that category instead of a comedy one which is nutso! It’s a little bit flattering in some ways to be nominated with all of these amazing people who are really speaking truth to the world. But it’s also like, damn, is what we’re saying not funny or are we ambidextrous - we’re left and right-handed? Can we do both? We have found a way to do both!

Without Miles, Miles is the glue. He is the voice of reason. He is the funniest dude ever. He does the research, I elaborate and he pulls me back. So, we have something that works well and yes, we’re not sure what we’re going to do with the show yet. We have so many ideas on our slate that it’s unlimited amount of ideas that we have that we can do and we haven't locked in what we’re going to do with May I Elaborate?, but we’re not locked out of it either. So, we’ve done a lot of episodes. For this type of show, we’re not just turning it on and talking. You have to do a little research and it takes a lot of time and looking at the perfect quote and affirmation and using it to our advantage.

AM: For last season, it was just the perfect show especially in the midst of the pandemic. To be able to have those lighter moments that would come in and to start the day off with that, it allowed us to have some laughs before we delved into the work here at Athleisure Mag whether it was booking, virtual shoots, meetings etc and it created a part of the day that we looked forward to. That was definitely special but in general. I’m always excited to hear what you will elaborate on?

JBS: Yes and we’re looking forward to doing in some capacity – anything that we can do to help people and to keep things fresh and fun. As little work as possible, but as much of a reward as possible.

AM: You have also had amazing partnerships whether it’s with Crown Royale, Caesars or JUST Egg to name a few. What do you look for when it comes to brand alignment that wants to connect with you? How do you decide what you want to lend your brand to?

JBS: I kind of go with the notion of to talk about what I know about – that way I’m not ever in a weird position. I’m a vegan so I love the JUST Egg relationship that we have. I entertain a lot so I did love my Crown Royale campaign. Every campaign I have ever done, I have always found a way to make it something that I love and that I can put a lot of energy into it and I use it. We were doing this branded entertainment with these companies for years before anybody was really doing it. I did a Mountain Dew campaign years ago – Mountain Dew White Out campaign – you name it. This Caesars one is just another one that I love. I love taking on characters. I like characters. I grew up in the age where commercials were about the characters – the “Where’s the Beef” lady, I love commercials man –

AM: The “Time to Make the Donuts” man.

JBS: Oh yes – time to make the donuts! I love that stuff! I always loved characters and reoccurring cool characters.

AM: We love your Caesars Sportsbook one. Like you said the fact that it’s characters, but also – we love football. We’re in NY, but also – I love football. We’re in NY, but I’m originally from Indiana so when you had the Mannings – that was exciting and then of course, Halle Berry in the commercial! How did this come back with you partnering with them and what will you do with them in terms of ongoing work?

JBS: Well, I actually did a commercial years ago a with a director. The commercial never made it to air, but what happened was, the director remembered me and he loved the commercial even though it never aired and he reached out. He said he was doing a campaign with Caesars and he didn’t see anyone else being Caesar but me! He liked my voice, my delivery and he knew it would be fun. He said he couldn’t imagine anyone else embodying this emperor than me. He said that he thought that it would be amazing and wanted to know if I wanted to do it and I thought it sounded hilarious. He said if we were going to do it, we were going to start the campaign and he had already sold me to Caesars and let them know that they would be blown away by me and that I was his guy. He told them that no one would be able to do this better than JB.

Now that goes back to what we were talking about – coming early, staying late, being courteous, not being a diva – all those things. I’m a seed planter. This is another version of planting seeds for later. I’m the squirrel who has those acorns and buries them for winter. That’s why my phone rings constantly. I’m always planting seeds and I have tons of seeds still planted. My phone rings and it keeps going and that’s why it keeps ringing because I have already planted these seeds and relationships that I have built already. That’s how I keep busy. People say all the time, “man, you’re everywhere – but you don't see everything at one time.” Everything is spread out over time because I have planted seeds and projects and it’s going to come out at this time and then this project over here will come out after this project at this time. My visibility is always up there and that’s the fun part.

AM: You’re an Emmy award winner, author, comedian, actor, producer, podcast host - you do so many things. What else do you want to add to your portfolio that you have yet to do?

JBS: I know at some point, I will get behind the camera and direct something. We started a brand new company called Alternate Side Productions, we’re going to build an amazing brand, an amazing company which will be off the hook. We’re going to do some amazing projects under the JB Smoove banner with brand and style and the things that we love to do. We’re going to build that and I’m going to put a lot of people to work. I think that that’s what needs to be done to build a production company. I want to drop some amazing products in the vegan lane. I’m a vegan. That’s going to be another thing. I have been doing the vegan thing for a long time. A lot of people are just jumping on the bandwagon, but you know, I let them do what they do. I’ve been vegan for awhile and I have been harping on this for awhile now and linking myself with other vegan products. A lot of people are just getting onto it and you know, it’s all good. I’m already established in this lane so it’s another thing and extension of what I do. It’s also another extension of caring about people’s health and my own health.

AM: What led you to want to become a vegan?

JBS: Well my wife has been a vegan for forever. My wife is a musical artist and has been a vegan forever and hasn’t had meat in something like 27 years. So, she was a vegetarian for awhile, then a vegan and now she is a raw vegan which is a whole other level. She’s doing that now, but I’m a straight vegan. I’ve been part-time/full-time for a long time. I was part-time vegan and full-time carnivore for awhile. Now, for the past 4 years, I have been a straight vegan and it’s been great.

AM: As you say, you’re always planting seeds. Do you have upcoming projects that you are able to share that we should keep an eye out for?

JBS: Not right now. The main thing I’m working on right now is of course, you know that Curbed got greenlit for season 12, I have a bunch of animated shows coming out, I have the new season of Woke out right now and I’m recording something right now for a video game. I’m also recording 2 other animated shows at the same time. I’m also building this company. I’m resuming my standup tour and I’m also doing a special and hoping that I can get it done by the top of the year. There’s a bunch of cool things that I am working on and I’m very happy with my process. I like to be the steady tortoise sometimes – I don’t need everything at one time, I still love my private time so that I can RV. I still love to do all the fun things that I love to do. As I said, my wife is also out there doing her thing with her new studio. We’re doing so many cool things and also we’re building some companies outside of entertainment. Yeah we’re just doing cool stuff and things that are off our interest list.

AM: You have great style that's well accessorized. As a stylist in addition to my role as a Co-Founder and Style Director at Athleisure Mag, how do you define your style and would you ever create your own clothing/accessory line?

JBS: I love style! I grew up in an era where you build your outfits from the shoes up. You get a nice pair of reliable comfortable shoes because the first thing people do is look down at your feet and then they work their way up to your eyes.

I do have some amazing things coming out. I’m working on a watch, I’m working on a hat line and some amazing bracelets. I’m working on a few amazing things. Yes, all of these things I plan on dropping before the new year and this is going to be some amazing accessories. Apparel is a little hard, but accessories are something that I love and I love things that I consider conversation pieces. A conversation piece will get you in the door and you can meet your new boss. It just takes the interview and this changes the meeting and the relationship and takes it to something different. It gets you in differently.

I tell young people all the time, create a conversation piece whether it's a rose or a flower in your lapel – something that people look at and think, “wow, I like his style. I like what he represents.” That is the #1 thing – a shiny pair of shoes, a pocket square – something amazing on you to create and allow people to keep their eyes on you. It creates that question of, what kind of rose is that, what kind of pocket square – who made that tie? All these things are things that people look at and allows them to reaffirm who you are!

AM: I couldn’t agree more – statement pieces are so essential!

With everything that you have done, what do you want your legacy to be?

JBS: I just want to be known as a chance taker. I believe in getting as many at bats as possible. Get as many swings at the ball as possible. I have always been one where I have had some stumbles, but I have a bad memory of those stumbles. I tell people all the time that life keeps going – it keeps moving. To be free of mind and to be free to take as many swings as possible and to know that you can change your mind. Take as many swings of the things that you want to do in this life as possible. The more swings you get, the more hits you get. If you’re sitting on your hands, you can’t get the swings! I always say, get those swings in, figure out your progress, figure out what you want to do and keep swinging at it. I want to be known as chance taker, a guy that always walks on a tightrope with no net. I always feel like I got good balance. With good balance, you never worry about falling - you know what I mean? If you worry about falling, you worry about standing up.

IG @ohsnapjbsmoove

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 30 - 31 Harrison O'Brien | PG 33 + 43 Noemad | PG 34, 50 + PG 73 - 75 9DRIP Storm Santo | PG 36 - 40 Curb Your Enthusiasm HBO/John P Johnson | PG 44 - 47 Luis Ruiz | PG 49 The Last O.G. TBS/Cara Howe |

Read the MAY ISSUE #77 of Athleisure Mag and see STORING SEEDS | JB Smoove in mag.

BACK AT THE PYNK

In 2020, the first season of P-Valley, an adaptation of Olivier Award, Pulitzer Prize winning and 2X TONY nominated playwright Katori Hall's (The Mountaintop, Tina: Tina Turner Musical, The Hot Wing King) play Pussy Valley, premiered on STARZ. Katori serves as the Executive Producer and showrunner for this series. This series takes us to the Mississippi Delta where local politics, a strip club and the need to elevate in society come to a head.

The sophomore season of P-Valley begins June 3rd and we caught up with some of our faves of The Pynk in Chucalissa, Mississippi. In our roundtable, we talked with Elarica Johnson (Eastenders, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, A Discovery of Witches) who plays Autumn that we meet in the first season after running from her problems to the town of Chucalissa and becomes a dancer at The Pynk; Parker Sawyers (Succession, Snowden, A Discovery of Witches) who plays Andre Watkins who is an an associate at a commercial investment company trying to secure land for The Promised Land Casino and Resort. We also talk with Shannon Thornton (POWER, Dynasty, Inventing Anna) who plays Keyshawn a dancer at The Pynk who is also making her debut as an artist and J. Alphonse Nicholson (Mr. Robot, Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madame C.J. Walker, Just Mercy) who plays the up and coming rapper, Lil' Murda.

We find out how they came to this series, why this show is powerful and what can we expect as we head into season 2.

ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s so great to talk to you guys and we've been a fan of your work in this series as well as other projects that you have been attached to. Before we delve into P-Valley and the upcoming season, what led you to want to be an actor?

ELARICA JOHNSON: Ohh I like this question! I was that performing artist kid – the annoying one that has to do performances at the age of 4 or 5. Then I watched Annie in the theater and saw this little girl doing this performance and I was like, oh my God, I want to do that. And then I think that the biggest part is the storytelling. I loved reading stories when I was younger and the fact that I can dress up and be whoever is handed to me and to be who I want to be, that’s the most incredible thing.

PARKER SAWYERS: What’s the expression? Nothing is as queer as folk – nothing is as queer as people? I just love exploring humans man! We’re just a strange animal! So far, my degrees are in philosophy and psychology. I like thinking and reading about people and then I didn’t start acting until I was 27. I’ve always been a keen observer of human behavior and just like – what? Why is that? I’ll give you an example. I was surprised by Katori, I think she had been out of her hometown for awhile like a decade! She had been in NY like Columbia, Harvard and this kind of stuff. And then, her accent is still quite strong! I love thinking about how she loves her hometown and she’s seeing all the stars, her place, the dialect – she loves it so much! That accent isn’t going anywhere! Whereas some other people, they move and they want to assimilate – I live in London and some Americans, they want to feel part of the culture and it’s not on purpose but their accent will start to go British. I love thinking about stuff like that and then putting it on screen whenever I get the chance.

SHANNON THORNTON: I wanted to be an actor since I was a kid. I have always just been a creative person. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a lefty as we’re always creatively and artistically inclined. I don’t know if that has something to do with it as well! I’ve always had a passion for drawing, I was involved in everything band, choir, drama club, African dance, ballet – anything that just involved being on the stage and performing. I was just a part of it and ever since I was a kid from my first play in middle school, I’ve always wanted to create and to express myself artistically. I really couldn’t see myself doing anything but what I am doing right now.

J. ALPHONSE NICHOLSON: For me, it came later in life. I’m a musician first, I’ve been a percussionist my entire life, but I will say that I have had a lot of artistic influences growing up from my mom writing church plays to being on a step team in high school to being in a marching band – so the showmanship was always there. Once I got to college, I was 18 at North Carolina Central University thinking that I was going to be a band teacher, I had a wonderful teacher come up to me and said that I should pursue this theater course and to audition for this play because I had a great personality. I did it and I fell in love with it. Here we are now at 32, 12 years later and I found a lot of success through storytelling and it just grew on me and I knew it was something that I was going to do for the rest of my life outside of any of my other endeavors. Storytelling is important to me and once you realize that you have a gift for it, it doesn’t feel like work – it’s something that you want to keep going after.

AM: I love that. What drew you guys to wanting to be part of P-Valley? I remember hearing about it before the 1st season dropped and I was excited. It sounded like it was going to be really good and when it came on, I was obsessed with this show and the characters! It was everything that I could have imagined and more.

EJ: I mean, I read this script and I fell in love very early on! I was like, this one’s for me – yes! The writing is amazing and Katori does an incredible job with the characters and the space and even the language – I had never seen it before. I knew that it had to be mine. You don’t see scripts like that very often.

PS: The same, the same! Elarica already said it, but as actors, I don’t know how many scripts we get and especially during busy months of the year, it can be 5 or 6 a week. I mean a lot of them look the same and I get confused! I’m like, did you already send me this one? But when I got P-Valley, it was so new and fresh – I got it and I understood it! Oftentimes, I don’t understand some of the humor written down or something in the script. But this one I was like – oh that’s funny, I got this, that’s cool. Reading it I was like, that’s interesting and I know that and I know that world – a little bit. So that’s just something that just leapt out.

ST: The writing is what pulled me in for sure. As soon as you read the script, I remember going into my manager’s office one day to put myself on tape for another project that I was auditioning for and they were like, “listen, this came across our desk and I know you don’t do nudity and that you don’t play this type of character, but it’s definitely worth a read.” I read it on the train ride home as I was living in NY at the time and I cried. It was so beautiful and I hadn’t come across anything like that in my entire career up until that point. The characters are just so beautifully fleshed out and complicated and this world is just so real and familiar to me. I absolutely, despite my reservations, absolutely had to at least throw my hat into the ring and see.

JAN: Same! Katori Hall! The writing! I knew of her genius as a writer prior to coming to P-Valley. We both come from the theater world in NY. So I was very fond of her work and when the opportunity came to work with her and to have an opportunity to audition, we went for it and when you add in the complexity of playing Lil’ Murda right? Him being a closeted rapper so as a heterosexual man, you get a little apprehensive and say, “hey is this a story that I feel comfortable in telling” and then you do it and it's so rewarding! For me, I feel like I have played a part in being an ally in a really dope community and that’s what drew me to it. 1. being an ally through storytelling and then 2. just this incredible writing by Pulitzer prize winning Katori Hall.

AM: That's great. One of the things that we love about this show is that everyone is haunted by something in this series and they are trying to escape to other things in their life. Where did we leave your characters last season and where do we pick up with them again going into the 2nd season which launches next month?

EJ: I mean, when we left my character Autumn, she was at the auction house and I know that there are a lot of questions from fans on where is that situation now and does she really own this space now and what is her relationship like with Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan – Snowfall, This is Us, Claws)? I can tell you that it’s very bumpy! She does own the majority of The Pynk and is in partnership with Uncle Clifford and she is the boss now. This is a huge difference from her 1st season but the space belonged to Uncle Clifford for so long and has been in her life for so long that this battle has been going on for a very long time.

PS: With Andre, we’ve seen him where we left off with him failing at a mission again. We open up with him out of a job and sort of lost. And in my mind, a bit of a bum, overgrown and he’s stopped grooming himself and maybe stopped showering and maybe stopped washing his legs – I don’t know! He’s a bit lost, but then there’s something that happens that gets him out of it. Not immediately but it starts him on his path to getting back to himself. But he does it quickly and it’s pretty impressive.

ST: Season 1 as far as Keyshawn, you last see her at The Pynk, she had at this point, pulled a gun on Diamond (Tyler Lepley - 90210, The Haves and the Have Nots, Harlem) to protect her abusive boyfriend Derrick (Jordan Cox - TURN: Washington's Spies, Dynasty, The Outsider). We pick up where we left off, maybe a few months later where we are now in the throws of a pandemic and Keyshawn is dealing with the consequences of her actions. We see in season 2 whether or not she’s forgiven by Diamond or forgiven by her co-workers at The Pynk and where the relationship stands or goes with Derrick.

JAN: We find Lil’ Murda in a similar place at the end where he’s trying to figure him self out and to find himself. We absolutely find him in the same place that we’re at right now, dealing with a pandemic and dealing with how to cope with that. By the time we get to the end of season 2, we see him in a much more clearer space with himself but still complicated and complex none the less. We see him go through this incredible journey as a musician, a lover, a friend as a big brother to Keyshawn and how he moves through that space. So we find them in a multitude of different levels and a lot of different levels and then we find out how they even that playing field for themselves.

AM: The cast is really great and as you're watching the story unfold, there are interesting dynamics between them. In terms of Autumn and Andre, there is a tension between them will we continue to see that as we continue into the next season?

For Keyshawn and Lil' Murda, there is a great vibe into your characters in their relationship as friends and business partners. How will that evolve into the next season?

EJ: They do! They naturally have this thing. They’re like magnets and they’re drawn to each other regardless of what they’re going through as there’s always going to be something. I think that that is definitely a strong factor in their relationship. Yeah, we see that in this season coming.

JAN: For sure, you see it grow immensely. You see them become very fond of each other and what they are able to offer each other. Not only as business partners but as friends too right and as entertainers. I think that Lil’ Murda knows that he has to admit it to himself and his manager on the show that they can’t do that tour without Keyshawn. So we have to make that happen and then at the end of the day, I think that she knows and I don’t want to speak for her, but I feel like Lil’ Murda knows that Keyshawn knows that I am valuable to her. She feels like, “hey, he’s going to help me get out of these trenches – let’s go on tour and make that happen!”

I am valuable to her. She feels like, "hey, he’s going to help me get out of these trenches – let’s go on tour and make that happen!”

AM: Do you think that Keyshawn feels that way?

ST: Absolutely. Yes! We’re helping each other here. I think that being on tour is a kind of escapism and we were able to just escape reality for a little bit. It’s in the middle of the pandemic, but at the same time, we get to take that breather because we’re going on tour. You’ll see little texts and phone calls that bring us back to reality, but yeah absolutely.

AM: Looking past P-Valley, do you have any upcoming projects that you’re able to share that we can keep an eye out for?

PS: Oh man! The Lost Girls, that’s a movie that’s coming out. Look on my IMDB. Next week, I go off to Europe for a few months to do a couple of shows. I’m doing one for HBO Max and it’s set in the 1970s and it’s a spy thriller. Then I am also revisiting a character from a BBC show that I did in 2018 but because of the pandemic, we’re just getting around to being able to do the 2nd season! It’ll be cool, summer in Europe.

EJ: There’s nothing that I can talk about at the moment but I’m so thrilled to hear about what everyone is doing!

JAN: For sure, so I had an opportunity to work on a really cool project with John Boyega (Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker), Jamie Foxx (Horrible Bosses 2, Baby Driver, Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Teyonah Parris (If Beale Streets Could Talk, Wandavision, Candyman) called They Cloned Tyrone coming to Netflix this year. I have 2 other projects that are in production right now and they are producer projects as well called Shadowbox with Hill Harper (Homeland, Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber, The Good Doctor) and Joslyn Rose Lyons (Looking Glass, Waging Change, Truth to Power) she’s a writer and director of that project. So it’s in the festival circuit right now. The other 2 projects that I am doing right now haven’t had my characters be announced yet so I can’t wait for the audience and my fan base to get a hold of that!

ST: There are a couple of things that are in play right now, that I don’t want to jinx – they’re under wraps for the moment but I am very very excited and I don’t think that anyone will see me in quite this light before.

IG @pvalleystarz

@elarica

@parkersawyers

@shannonthornt_n

@j_fonz

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 100 - 111 STARZ/P-Valley

Read the MAY ISSUE #77 of Athleisure Mag and see BACK AT THE PYNK in mag.

ATHLEISURE MAG | #77 MAY 2022

In this month’s issue, our cover story is with international superstar EDM DJ/Producer duo Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike. We talk about their love for music, how they got into the industry, their creative process and upcoming projects that span Dimitri appearing in Jurassic World: Dominion and the latest collab with Mike in his BLACK BANANAS X GREEN ROOM. We catch up with Emmy Award winning comedian, actor, animation voice actor and host of his podcast – May I Elaborate? JB Smoove. We talk about how he got into the industry, how he honed his craft via improv, being on SNL for 3 seasons, the upcoming 12th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm and more! Apple TV+’s Physical will drop it’s 2nd season next month. We talk to 2 of its stars, Rose Byrne and Dierdre Friel about what we can expect. STARZ’s P-Valley is also back for its 2 second season and we caught up 4 of the castmembers (Elarica Johnson, Parker Sawyers, Shannon Thornton and J. Alphonse Nicholson) to talk about how they got into the industry, catching us up on season 1, what we can expect for season 2 and additional projects coming up. Mark Indelicato is back for season 2 of HBO’s Hacks and Prime Video’s With Love. We talk about the impact of the success of his character in Ugly Betty, his process to approaching his roles, his shows and more. We also talk with swimsuit model and Netflix’s Grace and Frankie star, Brooklyn Decker. We talk about how she transitioned from modeling to acting, the final season of this iconic comedy and more.

This month’s 9PLAYLIST comes from EDM DJ/Producer Hardwell as well as Lost Frequencies. Our 9DRIP comes from our cover, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s JB Smoove. Our 63MIX ROUTIN3S comes from WTA tennis star Ajla Tomljanovic and celebrity hair stylist, Andrew Fitzsimons. Our 9LIST STORI3S comes from EDM duo SOFI TUKKER.

Our monthly feature, The Art of the Snack shares Indian restaurant, aRoqa in NYC’s Chelsea. This month’s Athleisure List comes from Pikes Hotel in Ibiza and Pause Studio in LA. As always, we have our monthly roundups of some of our favorite finds.

Read the MAY ISSUE #77 here.

IT'S ALL JUST STORY | RODNEY BARNES

This year when the NBA unveiled their 75th Anniversary Team of retired and active players, it included 17 members who played for the Lakers which includes the Showtime era of the 70/80s with players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson. To understand the importance of this era and what it did to how we enjoy the game, and how it moved the game forward in terms of commerce and making players brand, Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty illustrates the dynamics at play.

We talked with Rodney Barnes, who has written for STARZ Heels, STARZ American Gods, Everybody Hates Chris and more. He shares how he got into the industry, the positions he has held, his approach to his work, being the Executive Producer and writer for Winning Time, Zombie Love Studios and his passion for comic books and graphic novels.

ATHLEISURE MAG: You’ve worked in various positions in the entertainment industry as a Production Assistant, showrunner, Executive Producer and an award-winning screenwriter. With all of these roles, what was the moment that you realized that you wanted to work in this industry?

RODNEY BARNES: I was going to Howard University and I was in the School of C (Howard University Cathy Hughs School of Communication) and I was working at Georgetown Law Center as a campus cop at night and I found out that the movie The Pelican Brief was coming to my job to film some scenes. So I was really excited because it’s one thing to go to school for this and it’s another thing to actually be able to see it up close. So I signed up for all of the overtime details and I got them all. I started watching the movie being put together and it was so exciting! So I met a guy and he was the PA, he was a Key Set PA. So I asked him how I could get a job doing what he did. He said that that weekend, they had some big scenes that were taking place at the Washington Monument and that if I wanted to come and do it for a day, they'd be happy to have me.

So I did it and it was the most exciting, fun and best $100 that I ever made in my entire life! It was something about it that felt right. I felt more purpose in doing that and being close to this thing that I wanted to be close to then I did doing anything else that paid a lot better. I quit my job at Georgetown and started working as a PA full time.

AM: What a story, we always tell people that we embrace the multi-hyphenate. As someone who has worked in a number of roles and continues to do so from writing and producing, when did you know that you wanted to take on these areas and what the specific area was that you wanted to start in first? Or was there just a confluence that took place to make all of this come together?

RB: I knew I wanted to be a writer, but I knew what I didn’t know. I knew that I didn’t understand how any of this worked and I had a very fundamental understanding of what writing was and telling stories. Quite frankly, emotionally and psychologically, I wasn’t mature enough or evolved enough to be able to take on the big job. So, working as a PA, I look at it as being an apprentice. I had an opportunity to meet people, to sort of find my tribe, to figure out the psychology of how it would work and to just get my legs under me which was a bit like bootcamp. It was always writing, but I had to build up to the idea of being able to take my shot at it because it just felt too big.

AM: What do you think was the biggest thing that you learned from being a PA that has helped you with your career or was it just being able to see all the parts that were moving and to be able to understand how they connect?

RB: There was that. I think that the thing for me was that I always had this idea that everybody in Hollywood must be a genius and I haven’t met a genius yet. But, what I have met are some folks that have worked really really hard at their craft. It sort of demystified the entire process for me in being able to see it up close and to be able to observe. I wouldn’t say that I was a vital part although I know that some people would disagree. It was sort of the type of thing where getting to know people as friends and mentors even though that’s a problematic word as no one put their arm around me and said, “son this is what you do.” But they allowed me to be in their circle and to be able to see how the sausage is made. I got an opportunity to be able to just see things up close and to decide whether or not I could do it, if I wanted to do it and the closer I got to the thing that I wanted, the better that things got for me, but I wouldn’t have been able to do any of it if I hadn’t been a PA.

AM: From a screenwriting aspect, you have written a number of things. I loved your work in American Gods which I loved that show and obviously Winning Time and then you look at shows like Everybody Hates Chris. How do you get inspiration to write and then where do you start from when you’re trying to put words to paper to create these worlds for us?

RB: I never looked at it from a place of inspiration because if I need the emotional investment to do it, then I’m not going to be inspired some of those days and I’m still going to have to do it. For me, the difference was, approaching every day like I’m at work which was no different then when I was at Walmart or Target or any of those places that I worked at along the way. I had to get up, I had to work, I didn’t feel like it and then somewhere midday or so, it got a little bit better and then a little bit better. I sort of approach writing in the same way. I have a lot of resistance on the days that I don’t feel like doing it, but it needs to be done because I have a deadline. 78% of the time, I’m able to be disciplined and I’m able to get it done and the other times, I might go to the movies, sit and watch a game or do something else when I’m supposed to be writing. But I think it’s more of a discipline of doing the thing than an emotional component to it. There are days where I feel it and if I'm writing something like a horror driven thing like in my graphic novels, I'm enjoying it a great deal so it’s easier to do, but whether I feel it or I don’t feel it or am some place in between, I still do it.

AM: Just to circle back to American Gods, one of my minors in college was Classical Civilization so it covered mythologies of the world in addition to Greece and Rome and included African and Asian nations. So when I watched it, I loved seeing all of these stories that came to life. What was it like writing for that?

RB: It was great! The best thing that came out of it was my relationship with Orlando Jones (Sleepy Hollow, American Gods, The Good Lord Bird) who played Anansi/Mr. Nancy on our show. I had a similar thing as you, I didn’t do it in college but I studied a lot of different types of mythology and some of these characters like Anansi and Bilquis and others, you don’t really get to hear a lot about them. Because of comic books, you get Thor and Zeus, Odin and Hercules and those guys but oftentimes, Gods of color don’t get a lot of love. Even when they do, it’s in secondary roles. Working for American Gods and I’m a huge Neil Gaiman fan. So to be able to play in that sort of world and get some genre credits under my name was great as I have a comic book company and I also tell a lot of genre driven stories so being able to legitimize that beyond wanting to do it was always something that I wanted to do.

AM: It was such a phenomenal series. I remember seeing the episodes and being able to see some of these characters that I had read about being brought to life so fully, it kept me glued and it was truly incredible.

So as a screenwriter, what is that process like in terms of getting attached to a project and how does one pitch themselves to get into this work?

RB: Well my agents do a lot of my pitching. They typically open doors, but I’d say that about 75% of the work that I get, outside of the things that I create, really comes from via word of mouth. Right now it’s a good time because of Winning Time and people seemingly are enjoying it and you get a lot of offers to do things because they like it which I am grateful for and it is a blessing. More often than not, it’s about putting yourself in the right position you know? People know that I write graphic books and comic books so whenever a project like that comes around and it seems like they can use a writer like me, oftentimes, they’ll call or not so much now because I have been doing it for awhile but maybe 7 or 8 years ago, if it was something that I had heard about that was coming down the pike, I would tell my agents to keep an eye out on it and then see if maybe they could get me up there to be considered.

AM: Is it a different flow for you when you’re writing for the BET Awards or the Oscars – is there a different approach because it’s a live audience or a different format then just a show or even the comic books?

RB: Not really, I look at all of it like it’s story whether it’s writing a joke, Chris Rock or one of his specials or whoever I’m working for for the Oscars or an awards show. Even a joke is a story. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. Whether I’m telling a funny story or a horrifying story or a dramatic story, at the end of the day, it’s all a story. So, I approach it all the same way. The biggest thing for me is really understanding who’s going to be interpreting the words. Like, I work a lot with Chris Rock, and I know him really, really well so if I’m going to pitch something to him, I incorporate that knowledge into the pitch. Like, I can sort of filter myself and know that he wouldn’t like this or he would really like that part. In writing the shows, I have built a great relationship with a lot of our cast and so, I try to write to their strengths as well as to the story that I am trying to tell. When I am saying that I’m writing to their strengths, I'm talking dialogue. There is a cadence to how people talk and if you can make it easier for them to interpret the words, I think that they become more comfortable with it so it's really more so about having familiarity with it for the task at hand.

AM: Also in your body of work, you have been a co-producer and a producer in shows like Heels, Winning Time and Wu-Tang: An American Saga. We’ve had a number of WWE wrestlers as our cover and shared their stories so seeing Heels was another show that we enjoyed. When did you realize that you wanted to add these roles into your body of work and how does that change your perspective especially when you're also writing the show as well?

RB: Well it’s funny, those titles of producing can mean a lot of different things. Earlier in my career, say on My Wife and Kids, when I was a producer, it wasn’t really a lot more to do than sitting in a room and writing. It’s sort of like the government, government jobs they have G-1, G-2 as you work up and it’s sort of like that in television in writing as well. If you do it long enough, you start out as a staff writer and then you move up to a story editor and then an executive story editor and then you go up through the WGA (Writers Guild of America) classifications that go with moving up. But then, in certain gigs like in Everybody Hates Chris, I was in the writer’s room and wrote a number of episodes, but I also produced the voiceover that you would hear in every show. So I would write the lines and go with Chris Rock and go record the lines together and then I would place them in the show in editing. So, to me that was actually the beginning of actually producing and so on different shows, that idea of what a producer means is something different.

On Winning Time, I actually work with the actors whether it’s working on set with their lines, working with the director to see whether or not a shot is sort of lining up with how we saw it when we were writing the show – it can mean a lot of different things. There are some shows where I have been an EP and it didn't mean anything more than just writing a show and putting it together or on some shows I'm actually tangibly doing something different. On American Gods, I wrote and also worked on the set with the actors and the director as well and putting it all together. On Heels, not so much. Marvel's Runaways – not so much. But it’s different with each one, so it’s a classification that comes with being a TV writer and as the responsibilities go, it has more to do with what that show requires.

AM: When I first heard about Winning Time last fall, I knew I was going to love it, I remember as a kid in 1986 loving this team even though I grew up in Indiana and it continues even though I live in NY now. So seeing this story, hearing about this story and getting this inside scoop of what was going on has made it really enjoyable to watch. How did you get attached to this project and what made you want to be involved?

RB: Max Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island, Worth, Godzilla vs Kong) who is our showrunner and the other Executive Producer as well, he and I have been writing together for about 10 years and when Jim Hecht (Fairly OddParents, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild) first optioned the book, he got the book to Adam McKay (Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Vice, Don’t Look Up), and he got it to HBO and they said they would do a pilot I believe, I don’t know if the project was picked up then. They hired Max, Max called me and I said yes that I would want to be a part of it. That’s how it started.

AM: It’s an incredible cast and I love McKay films and the people that are in it. In terms of writing this where you had Jeff Pearlman’s book Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s, how much source material did you have as I know players of that time as well as the franchise didn’t reach out to you on this. How did you coalesce these things all together to create this story and to provide that insider feel?

RB: Well we were really fortunate that book. So we studied a lot of books and Rick Fox, former Laker was our technical advisor, we talked to a lot of folks who were around the team at that time who worked for the organization, YouTube – we did a lot of research everywhere – articles anything that we could find. We sort of incorporated into the narrative and some stuff we had to tie in together for dramatization purposes.

AM: Obviously with the people that were involved, John C Reilly (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Anchorman II: The Legend Continues), Jason Clarke (Brotherhood, Chappaquiddick, Silk Road), Rob Morgan (Stranger Things, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Don’t Look Up), Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Dispatches from Elsewhere, Hotel Artemis) and Adrien Brody (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Peaky Blinders, Succession) etc, there are actors in there where there is a lot of secret sauce. You have actors who were athletic but didn’t play basketball and having to do so for this role, having Quincy Isaiah play such a key and iconic person who was new to this platform, how did all of this come together to get that energy, to make an audience believe that these people who be playing this game even though they didn’t necessarily have this background?

RB: Francine Maisler (Uncut Gems, Being the Ricardos, Dune) is our casting director and she did a great job finding folks. Sometimes you get lucky like in the case of Quincy who is from Michigan and was an athlete – a football player. He had to lose 80lbs or so to come down to being able to have a Magic Johnson-like look. Solomon Hughes who plays, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar is an educator, is 7-feet tall, plays jazz and he played basketball on a professional level before. You just get lucky sometimes. I think that that’s across the board in finding people that not only have the talent but also the emotional stuff.

If you think about our players, they have to learn how to play the game because some had never played the game before, they had to be convincing to learn how to play a particular way that their character played, they had to go through physical training everyday and then they had to learn their lines and then they had to act. So there would be times when they would have to come from training, be on set, leave their work, leave set and go and play basketball everyday for however long – for a year or so. Then there is the training that went into it before hand and always having a good attitude about it as they were going. We got really really fortunate to find the folks that we found.

AM: When did you realize that you were going to be Maurice?

RB: I’ll tell you when I was working, Max was working on a movie called Worth in NY that’s on Netflix now. I was working on the first season of Wu-Tang: An American Saga. I was in Staten Island, he was in Manhattan. We would meet on the weekends and we would go over it with Jim Hecht and Rebecca Bertuch (Worth) and we would work on putting the show together. Every now and then, this name would pop up, Maurice, Maurice, Maurice – like who the hell is Maurice? Oh, you’re going to see and it was like an inside joke. They knew that I didn’t know. When we were officially on board and we started in the writer’s room in LA, we had all the pictures up of the actors on the wall and then there was a picture of me. I was like, “why is my picture on the wall?” They said, you’re going to play Maurice and I was like, “oh, ok – haha Maurice.” So Max actually wrote Maurice’s lines and the only scene that I had at one time was the scene with Pat Reily where I don’t let him in The Forum. I thought, “ok, I can do that, I’ve been a security guard my whole damn life!” I know how to say you can’t come in. You don’t even need to even write out the lines just let me stand there and I know how to not let you in some place. Then, all of a sudden, I started seeing Maurice pop up in other scripts! He's like a leprechaun where he sort of shows up in different places and I'm like, "why am I popping up?” and then I had a walk and talk which is very difficult as an actor because you have to walk, you have to think and you have to move which was in episode 5 where I had that scene. I was nervous about that scene. Actually, I messed up the scene that is on. I messed up a line but Gabby Hoffman (High Maintenance, Girls, Transparent) who plays Claire Rothman is so great, you would never know because she kept going and I kept going and so that was it and they cut and we went on with the day – but I messed up.

It's cool, the network likes it, everyone likes him and I think that Maurice is going to come back and probably say more words.

AM: We always like when he pops up!

RB: Well, thank you! As long as I stay big and relatively menacing and intimidating, Maurice will probably be around.

AM: What has been your biggest takeaway of being part of this particular project, seeing it come together and the reception of people loving this?

RB: Anytime you work hard at a thing for a long time that is intended to entertain people, you always want that to land the way it is intended so that people are entertained. I think that we’ve got a great reception and that people really seem to like it and it’s sort of gratifying because I and a lot of people give a lot when you do these sort of things and it’s not easily assembled. For me certainly being able to talk about African American culture as it pertains to sports in a way that is sort of elevated is always an honor. It’s a good thing.

AM: Well, you guys have been greenlit for a second season. What does that look like, what do you want to tackle – will it continue with these same players or will it be another part of Laker history or even another time in NBA history for a Winning Time situation?

RB: As of the moment, the plan is to continue on in the same narrative and to just keep telling the story as we have been. Even now, when we first started the process before, we were going in the third or fourth iteration of what you see on screen now – we were going to go a lot faster. Then, the decision was made during COVID to slow down the process of storytelling and we had to go back to the drawing board a couple of times to slow it down. I say all of that to say that you never know. We could speed up a couple of seasons, we can keep going the way that it is, but I think that the plan for now is to continue going in the direction that it is.

AM: One of the things that I enjoy especially with a lot of the HBO shows is that there is a companion podcast and literally, I can’t wait until Mon to listen to the show which drops right after the episode airs on Sun. I listen to JB Smoove and then I listen to your podcast. It’s great to get your insights, what’s going on – the Rob Morgan episode was really great to hear. Every episode is great as there are so many tidbits that can be enjoyed. How did you get attached to hosting this podcast and how much input do you have over who ends up being on the episode with you?

RB: Very similar to how I became Maurice. Somebody thought that it would be a good idea to have me do it and my first reaction was, I have never done a podcast before and they were like, “oh you can do it.” I think that I tried to back out a couple of times and they were like no just give it a shot. I think that I got better as time went on which is sort of the course of life, the more you do it, the better you get at the thing that you do. But, it also helps that I know everybody. Everybody that I have had on so far whether it was Snoop Dogg, Rob Morgan or Quincy, or Max or whoever, I know them. It’s like having a conversation with someone who is a friend and not so much like talking to someone who is a stranger.

They always ask me who I would like to have on and I try to spread it around between the cast members, but also the people behind the scenes. I had Todd Banhazl (Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer, They Call Me Magic, Hustlers), I had Max, I had Jim Hecht, Rebecca, I had Sarah Scott (Pam & Tommy, The Offer, The Flight Attendant) our intimacy coordinator. I had Idan Ravin whose the basketball coordinator. I had our director Salli Richardson (The Chi, Altered Carbon, The Wheel of Time) and Tanya Hamilton (Big Sky, The Deuce, Snowfall). I try to mix it up where you have one of the cast members and then someone who is a technical part of the team so that for people who are interested in being part of the business as one time I was, you can actually hear some of what they do and realize that there are a number of jobs besides the big 4 or 5 at producer, director, writer. There are a lot of other things to be done and some things may spark to someone and hopefully that podcast can help a little bit.

AM: We love seeing the birth of the NBA as we know it today as this entertainment platform with next level dancers, club lounges and had this came together with Dr. Buss. This has become the standard for what it means to go to a NBA game. Being able to hear more about Jack McKinney and his time with the Lakers. I knew he was a coach for the Pacers, but I didn’t know about his backstory. What is it that you want audiences to walk away with after watching this season or subsequent seasons?

RB: Always with our show, we have what you know and the thing that you can Google and find out. Who won the game, who lost the game and those types of things. But there’s also those things that you didn’t know. Like in the case of Jack McKinney, a lot of people had forgotten not just him, but the accident that he was in – the basketball accident and how that changed the course of the Lakers coaching dynamic. So, being able to tell some of those stories and show the Shakespearean dynamic of the coaching system with Paul West head and Pat Riley, most people know Pat Riley being the Lakers coach and they sort of identify with just him, but there were other guys too.

I think that the other side of that coin is Spencer Haywood who was a big part of NBA free agency and a lot of how we look at basketball today in the fact that we can look at James Harden and see him go from team to team to team or LeBron just being able to go to the Heat and all of that – a lot of that has to do with Spencer Haywood and going to court to battle for free agency rights for players. When I was growing up watching the NBA, I’m from Maryland so we had the Bullets, now the Wizards. Usually if a player got drafted, he played with one team for his entire career. It was big news when a player would move from one team to another.

Now, when you look at the change and the evolution both in the style of play when you look at the Showtime offense of Jack McKinney that evolved and to Spencer Haywood’s contribution, that you see in these 2 gentleman, it has a lot to do with the way that the game is played and it’s rarely recognized over the course of history. Anytime we can incorporate things that folks don’t know, it’s always a treat!

AM: Usually, when an episode concludes, we’re usually Googling about 4 things! It becomes a great way to understand how far the game has come in really such a short period of time and how things are so different and the shoulders that people stood on to get to where we are now.

RB: Exactly.

AM: Where did your love for comic books come from. You have Killadelphia that you’re writing, Marvel, Star Wars universes and Lucas Film Studios – where did this come from?

RB: The only inciting influence that I can find in my mind and my heart was that my mother was a school teacher. Before computers and all of that stuff, she would go to the public library to do her lesson plans and she would bring me. There was always this area where you would have kids like in a pen, your Cat in the Hat, Curious George books etc. I had no interest in any of those books because under those books was a box and in that box was comic books. I knew exactly where it was and I don’t think that they ever changed them in all the years that I went. I would just sit in the corner and read them for hours. It sort of became a thing where it was infectious you know? The moral throughline and some of the stories were more evolved than what my 5 or 6 year old mind could handle but I was intrigued by that idea. Then later, people would give them to me and my grandfather would call them funny books back then. They would give me a stack of them and it was a way to keep me quiet. Later on, when I would have odd jobs, I would buy them. This was during a period of time where you could get comic books anywhere – the convenience store, liquor store, virtually any place that had a spinner rack full of comics. Now, you have to go to a comic shop on Wed to get them. But back then, they were readily available and they were only 20 cents or a quarter. Now they’re $4 if not more.

It was just a love that just evolved along with my life. In the beginning, it was mostly about the art and the story. Then in my teen and later years, there were guys like Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Swamp Thing) and Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol, New X-Men, Fantastic Four 1234) and Frank Miller (Daredevil, The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City), they sort of made it like literature and evolved into something that was more serious and that kept me involved and then later television and film like most people. So there has always been this relationship.

When I was younger, I tried to write comics professionally, but couldn’t find a way in. Like a lot of things that I’m sure people feel with television and film, it’s a tough nut to crack. But even more so back then, there weren’t a whole lot of African American characters and there wasn’t a big indie space when I was coming up. It was just Marvel and DC and every once in a while there’d be a new company that would pop in. They didn’t have the same distribution chain as DC so you were relegated to those 10 characters maybe if there were 10. I think that a lot of times, companies back then felt like unless you were writing for a character of color, what’s the point of hiring this person? So for me, I wanted to take a shot at writing a comic so when I was on the show Runaways which was a Marvel show, they liked my work and I sort of leveraged the appreciation of my work to say, “hey if you guys have any relationship with Marvel Publishing, I’d love to write a comic book.” They gave me Falcon. I quickly realized that I had no idea what the hell I was doing or how to write a comic book. I just took my shot. It was received ok-ish. Then again like the podcast, I kept doing it again and again and again and I got better and better and better at it and then I had the idea for Killadelphia and started a whole new thing. Now I write 10 books a month and I have my own company and it’s taken on a life all of it’s own.

AM: Which is amazing and I know in looking at your IG, you were talking about The Mandalorian which I’m a fan of. You have a project coming out in June – can you tell us more?

RB: Yes, it’s June the 22nd, The Mandalorian adaptation of the TV show and it’s the first adaptation that Marvel and Lucas Film have done with a project. It’s basically straight adaptation of that story. They don’t let you deviate too far from the story because it’s Star Wars cannon and you can’t really interfere or add new things because it’s connected to the television show. So I basically do my version of the television show would be.

AM: It’s still very cool though!

RB: Yes, it’s an honor to play in that space.

I just finished IG-88 Star Wars: War of the Bounty Hunters and I did Lando Double or Nothing earlier. I love to play in the space. I have a Luke Cage short that’s coming up and maybe a Luke Cage miniseries coming up for Marvel. So anytime you get to play in that space, it’s always fun because it’s such a big fan base that you get to connect with that many people is always an honor.

AM: You created Zombie Love Studio which deals with creating original graphic novels and things of that nature, what are some things coming out of there that you want to highlight?

RB: The first book is Blacula, a reboot of the Blacula character from Blaxploitation era in Oct/Nov which should be dropping then. I also have another book, Florence and Normandie and alien attack story that takes place on the corner of Florence and Normandie famous because of the Rodney King riots that started from there. I’m writing that with Xzibit. I have Tales from the Crip with Snoop Dogg which is the Crip Keeper. I have a book called Crownsville which is set in one of the first black mental asylums in America that’s a ghost story.

There's a bunch of other things that we’re developing that are moving along. There aren’t enough hours in the day, but I’m really excited about it all and it’s coming together slowly but surely.

AM: The depth of what you’ve done is truly phenomenal. What are things on your bucket list that you have yet to do or areas that you want to put into that body of work that you haven’t but that you’re still interested in tackling.

RB: Well certainly, developing the Zombie Love books and Killadelphia and things like that into my Substack page where I do 4 of the books. 3 that are connected to the Killadelphia world which is the book that I do at Image. There are 3 books that I do at Image, Killadelphia, Nita Hawes’ Nightmare Blog and Monarch an alien attack miniseries that I am doing. My Substack page has 3 other series, Johnny Gatlin who is a gun slinger in hell and hell is like the Wild West. 20 Degrees Past Rigor which is a zombie story set in Flint, Michigan where zombies are connected to the polluted waters of Flint. The Butcher of Black Bottom which is a serial killer story set in 1920’s Black Bottom section of Detroit. Then there’s Elysium Gardens which is in the back of Killadelphia which has an ongoing story on a Substack page. So, there are those books as well. There’s a lot of stuff and next, I hope to adopt a lot of those things into other forms of media whether it’s animated, live action or television or those kinds of things.

AM: Because you have so many projects that are just in constant rotation, how do you deal with the overlap? Do you have to be at a certain point before you take other things on – do you slice it up like a pizza and mix it the best that you can?

RB: Ha! That’s basically it. I try to tackle each thing as the day comes at me. I usually get up at 4 in the morning and then I start writing and I get the comic book stuff done in the morning. Then I tackle my day jobs like Winning Time or anything else that I have in front of me and I take it as the day comes. Whoever is yelling the most that is owed the thing to them – so yeah! Whoever’s voice is the loudest at the moment!

AM: I think that the time that we’re living in right now, although there is still a need for a lot more representation, to think of myself now versus the younger me who wouldn’t have thought to know that there would be an Ava Du Vernay (A Wrinkle in Time, Queen Sugar, Girls Trip), yourself, Shonda Rhimes (Bridgerton, Inventing Anna, Grey’s Anatomy) all these people that are moving storytelling forward. How important is it for you to reflect that in your work and to have POC be able to see themselves as well as for others to understand why they need to be an ally and to make these spaces more open?

RB: Well I think it’s important because the world doesn’t connect in the same way anymore like physically. We don’t talk to each other the way that we used to and it wasn’t perfect back then either. It’s more important than ever to be able to tell stories that have a ring of truth or some semblance of honesty. That way you get to see people as they are good, bad and indifferent more so than as a caricature or something that feels contrived in some way. I think that a lot of the biases that we hold with each other comes from those depictions. I know since 1619, a concerted effort was made speaking directly to African American culture to make us less than human. There’s one idea of being less than human, but you have to reinforce that on a regular basis. So you either make them caricatures or villains – one extreme or the other. If that idea has the ability to sort of ferment for 400 years or more then you’re at a place where it almost becomes truth because you’re so used to seeing that be the case.

So when you have this culture that is fighting for a slice of the pie or some semblance for respect and dignity, living in a culture and you’re sort of burdened by living with that depiction. It's really a hard thing to overcome because then even the culture itself starts to believe it – is this who I am and some people do. That can be problematic in its own way because you start to devalue yourself and people who look like you.

So I think that the more folks that can get in for various gender, sexual orientation, race or whatever it may be – to be able to speak to your truth in an honest way cannot only help you and the group that you’re in but also people outside of that group so that they have a better understanding of who you are and the struggle that you navigate just to be a human being and to have a human experience.

AM: Who are 3 people that you feel were profound, instrumental or helpful to be in your career?

RB: Damon Wayans (My Wife and Kids, Lethal Weapon, Major Payne) is always first! He was the first person that gave me an opportunity to work on a television show. Were it not for him, I wouldn’t be here. Don Reo (Everybody Hates Chris, Two and a Half Men, The Ranch) who was the showrunner and creator with Damon on My Wife and Kids. He helped take whatever raw ability I had and allowed me into a space in a way that pushed me to a space where I was able to see for myself what I had to do. I’m eternally grateful to him as well. I have to say that there is a tie for number 3 Allen Hughes (Dead Presidents, Menace II Society, The Book of Eli) of the Hughes Brothers, a director. He helped me to bridge art and commerce. He gave me an opportunity to write in a different type of way and helped me find my way of doing art. He was very supportive in that. Then, Max Borenstein who is our showrunner on Winning Time who sort of did the same thing but in a different way. There’s a push sometimes that you need to get out of where you have been to where you want to be and Max was very helpful in being able to push me. Beyond him pushing me, was me pushing me as well. There are a lot of other people and if you had given me 10 or 20, I could have continued on with other people who have helped me even if it was just survival – that’s important as well. So when it comes to writing and being a professional writer, those people come to mind.

IG @therodneybarnes

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 78 Warrick Page/HBO MAX | PG 81 - 85 STARZ/American Gods | PG 87 + 88 STARZ/Heels | PG 91 -102 HBO MAX/Winning Time |

Read the APR ISSUE #77 of Athleisure Mag and see IT’S ALL JUST STORY | Rodney Barnes in mag.