Humor and Heritage with Comedian, Actress and Writer Kerry Coddett

Kerry Coddett is a Caribbean-American writer, actress, and stand-up comedian from Brooklyn, who currently serves as the co-EP, showrunner, and head writer of the upcoming Untitled Yvonne Orji Stand-Up Special on HBO. Kerry is also a story editor on Showtime’s Flatbush Misdemeanors, where she appears as a recurring guest star. Kerry can also be seen on Showtime’s Desus & Mero, Pause w/ Sam Jay on HBO, and season 2 of Ramy on Hulu, in addition to appearing as a core cast member of The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show on Netflix. Prior to that, she was a staff writer on Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas, which was produced by John Oliver and aired on HBO. Kerry can also be seen on HBO’s Crashing, TruTV’s Laff Mobb’s Laff Tracks, BET's The Rundown with Robin Thede, Comedy Central's The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, and TruTV’s Comedy Knockout. 

Kerry shares how falling in love with the journey as she evolves in comedy, film and television. Kerry talks about her early viral rap parodies to her vibrant stand-up sets, Kerry's story is a dance of resilience and reinvention, seasoned with the rich flavors of her Trinidadian and Guyanese roots. Growing up in Brooklyn's East Flatbush, she weaves the threads of her heritage into a tapestry of comedic tales that resonate with authenticity and spark joy in the art of storytelling.

Kerry shares laughs and learnings from the battlefield of comedy clubs and offers a candid look at the challenges she's faced as a black female comedian. The wisdom imparted by industry experiences and icons lights the path for up-and-coming voices seeking to carve out their unique niches in the comedy scene.

We wrap up our chat with a dive into the pool of black creativity and economic power, where community-centric events like Kwanzaa  Crawl merge with the drive to support black-owned restaurants in New York City and she gives a sneak peek at an independent series she's working on, a heartfelt portrayal of Caribbean life in Canarsie, and the nuances of producing a one-woman show. 

Bring home Bob Marley: One Love on Digital now! Celebrate the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love, peace, and unity.  Buy Bob Marley: One Love on Digital today and get over 50 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and deleted scenes! Available at participating retailers. Rated PG-13. From Paramount Pictures.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:41

Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of the Silent Vibes podcast with yours truly Makayla. If you are new to the family, welcome to the family. If you are returning, welcome back. Family Today we have.

Speaker 1: 0:53

I always say that we have a special guest, because all of my guests are special to me, but this one is especially special because she and I went to CUNY Baruch College, so we're Bearcat alums, I guess you can say so. I have seen her grow on her journey over the last I'm not going to tell you how much years because we're not age or cell, but it's been just beautiful. Just watching her from back then, I knew she was going to be someone amazing, and she was then and she's just amazing now. Welcome, carrie Cadet. I would read your resume, but I think we're going to get through your entire resume in this interview. I don't want to spiel it off, but you've done a lot of amazing work and you know when you and I went to college you weren't in the comedy space. So let's go back there and tell me about how you got into comedy, because me and you are a big dancer, you know.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Yes, yes, yes, yes. How did I end up? I don't even know. I've always been a storyteller. I've always been writing, performing my whole life.

Speaker 1: 2:00

And so when I met you in Baruch.

Speaker 2: 2:02

I was a big, big, big dancer and I started my fashion company Senior Year, baruch. So right after graduation I was a fashion designer. And then the recession came and that popped down and I think that I pivoted to like rap. I was always rapping or doing something and I remember I want to say like 2007 or 2008.

Speaker 2: 2:27

I made like a rap parody video and the parody I like recorded it, we shot it, we filmed this big music video and it was so much fun and it went viral. Which viral back then was like where else are hip hop? And this is 50.com and YouTube might have just become a thing. And I remember all the people were writing all these comments because my parody was dissing Jay-Z, and all these comments were like bet you from Brooklyn, this is disrespectful, we're going to kill you.

Speaker 2: 3:00

And I was like, wow, people are really feeling something. I think I can do this. And so in putting together like a parody rap video, I realized that it was like one big comedy sketch and so I was like, oh, I think I'm onto something here. Let me go to comedy school. And so I started taking sketch comedy classes and then, after taking sketch comedy classes, I started doing improv and performing improv comedy with a group of people, and then improv led to me doing stand up. So the last couple of like 15 years have just been dedicated to all the different forms of comedy.

Speaker 1: 3:36

I feel like New Yorkers really coined the term multi hyphenant before it became a thing, because I remember always networking and it was just like, well, what do you do and what else and what else you got going. So it's also like the Caribbean nest in us to have multiple things going on, but you have always been such a creative spirit. Tell me what you were like as a young child, growing up. What would your parents say about you growing up in terms of all of your interests?

Speaker 2: 4:13

As a kid, I was always literally doing the most. I was always doing everything. I was always writing plays and then performing in it and like doing different characters and accents and making the costuming and doing the wardrobe for the characters that I was playing, and so I was always doing and then dancing and choreographing the dance pieces in it, and so I've always just been somebody who, as a kid, I was reading a lot and writing a lot, and so that's been my entire life. And my grandmother used to be like you could be a comedian, you know, and I remember being like that's so ridiculous. Like I fully attacked my girl for what you mean, like what would you be? Because I thought I was dead serious and she's like you're so funny, and so I resisted comedy for a long time until I realized that she was right the whole time.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Boy, when you have a grandmother who know what I know, and it just comes into fruition. So we touched on your Caribbean background, but I didn't give you the opportunity to share your Caribbean ancestry. Tell the people then, please, and thanks.

Speaker 2: 5:21

Sure, I'm Trini and Guyanese, which the combination of which makes me Jamaican.

Speaker 1: 5:28

Yeah you're going to be like that, we'll interview you, and you grew up in Brooklyn, in Flatbush in particular. So what was that like, being exposed to your culture, and how did that kind of shape you as who you are, in your comedy style that you have now?

Speaker 2: 5:50

So I grew up in East Flatbush and was raised in every place in the back of Brooklyn, every Caribbean neighborhood. I claim that East Flatbush, flatbush, flatlands, canarsie, those are my stomping grounds. And from literally pre-Kindergarten to eighth grade, I went to a Caribbean private school. All of my teachers were Caribbean, everybody in the school was Caribbean, and so I never had a white teacher until I got to high school and I was like this is boring, that's how y'all learn, nobody threatening to lash you, no, like how y'all stay on your toes with this dry instruction. And so I think that, being Caribbean and growing up in a predominantly Caribbean community and a predominantly Caribbean school, I always felt proud of my background. I never felt like I had to hide it. I never felt like I didn't fit in because I felt like I didn't fit in for other reasons, but it wasn't because of being Caribbean. And so I think that that just let me be really proud and have a sense of self, a strong sense of self, in everything that I did. Blah, blah, blah blah, blah.

Speaker 1: 6:56

I think that I think a lot of young Caribbean Americans. They don't necessarily get that. And when we talk about Brooklyn, we talk about Brooklyn. It's like the United States of the Caribbean in Brooklyn, right, Because all of the cultures are there and it's so unique to Brooklyn and even Queens and the Bronx in some respect. But I think that that's a unique experience to being in New York where you're heavily exposed to other cultures. What would you say to the young girl who it doesn't have that same experience? How do you keep that rich sense of culture as you are growing up in this space? That is it necessarily with people that look the same around you?

Speaker 2: 7:46

I think it's really about not letting anyone determine who you are. What are the things you should like? What are the things you shouldn't like and identify with? I think that you should anybody. You should try to be authentically yourself, no matter what your surroundings are, and so it doesn't matter if you're the only one that looks like you, Like. That's your superpower, that's what actually makes you special, so that's what you should lean into Instead of trying to blend in.

Speaker 1: 8:12

I've always been a big fan of standing out from the crowd and you mentioned it in your response that you felt like an outsider for other reasons. What are some of those reasons?

Speaker 2: 8:26

I think it's so interesting. It really depends on the situation. Like, I went from that same small like Caribbean school I had a graduating class of nine people. From there I went to Brooklyn Tech, which is one of the largest. It's one of the largest gifted schools, but it's also just one of the largest schools period and so we had 5,000 students and so just feeling like I was getting swallowed up by all of these kids, I'm just like oh, I'm clearly a private school girl in public school for the first time, and so I didn't have the same sensibilities as some of my other friends did and I also didn't talk the same way. Like I remember people being like you talk white and it's like girl if I sound white, I don't know what y'all sound like.

Speaker 2: 9:09

So I think that if anybody like that went to school with me, heard me say I didn't fit in, they'll probably be like that sounds crazy because, knowing me, I was always in the mix of something, but it was really just my social activities were the things where I found. That's where I found my tribe. Like on the dance team. I found other people who like to dance, doing spoken word poetry. I would find people who like to do spoken word also. So I think, although I didn't feel like I fit in in a conventional sense, once I found the hobbies and things that I liked I found my tribe.

Speaker 1: 9:45

Now you talked about, like all of your multiple interests. How did you kind of hone in? Was it truly the parody video that allowed you to kind of hone in on comedy specifically?

Speaker 2: 9:56

I don't know that made a conscious decision to stop doing all the other things.

Speaker 1: 10:00

When.

Speaker 2: 10:00

I started doing comedy, I was like, oh, this is a great way for me to do all the things I like to do. So when.

Speaker 2: 10:07

I first started, I did a web series called the Codditt Project, named after me, and it was basically all the different things that lived in my head, and so I got to play all these different characters. There was one character, completely, who was a pop star parody and so all I did was rap and dance and I would make her clothes and I would choreograph and put her in that, and then I would do other accents and different characters, and so I always thought that comedy was a vehicle that will allow my other skill sets to still live. I don't know if that answered your question, but it sounded like you asked me when did you choose? And the answer is I never chose.

Speaker 1: 10:44

You didn't choose. Your choice was to not choose, and I think that that's important too, because sometimes we feel like we have to and your interests don't change. Like your interests and other things evolve, and so I think you've been able to really bring them together in a really nice way and we'll get more into some of the projects that you have. But tell me a little bit more about just doing standup. Like that's not an easy role to kind of, or it might be because you're a natural, so from the outside looking in, that I think could be challenging. So when you first got on the stage, tell me about that experience.

Speaker 2: 11:26

Well, this is so funny. When I first started doing standup, before you do standup, everyone tells you you're going to bomb your first time, which means you're going to do as poorly as you imagine. They're like don't worry about it, everybody bombs. And if you want somebody like me, who comes from like a perfectionist background, the thought of not being, I could deal with not being great my first time, but I don't know if I could deal with being really bad, and so in my head I was always afraid of doing it. I was like, no, I'm good.

Speaker 2: 11:58

And then my friend, she worked for HSBC corporate and she was in charge of the, I think like the Caribbean interest group for the employees in the workplace. And she was like yo, my company, they're giving me a budget to have some talent for our Caribbean night and I want you to do standup. I was like bitch, I don't do standup. She was like well, we're going to pay you $500. I was like, well then, I guess I do standup. And the night before she was confirming me and I hadn't written anything I had procrastinated so much and I was like, okay, well, how long does this thing have to be? And she was like I don't know, maybe 15 minutes. If I knew then what I knew now I would have canceled completely. Like if you ask a comedian, it might take somebody the whole year to get 15 minutes worth of jokes that they really think is tight. And so I was like 15 minutes, huh. Okay, and I stayed up the whole night and I wrote, and it had to be because it was Caribbean. I was like I'm just going to make fun of my mother, I'm going to make fun of my mother and everything Caribbean. And I wrote and I wrote and I wrote and then the next day I had my mother there, my grandmother, my sister and I mean I was powered by Red Bull and the blood of Christ child, because I got up there and I first of all remembered everything and I did a full hour.

Speaker 2: 13:15

I did a full hour worth of comedy and I destroyed and I got a standing ovation and everything, everything I said, got a laugh, I went off book. I was just like winging it. And then I went back to stuff I wrote and I was like, oh my God, that was incredible. Thank you for my $500 check. And everybody said I was supposed to bomb and I didn't. So I'm done now. Now I can say I've done it. And I didn't do stand up for another year after that because I was so frightened. I was like, oh, that was perfect. That might be beginner's luck, and so that was how I first started. But it was doing Caribbean stuff and putting on a tranny accent and making fun of my mother and ting and ting and ting and ting, and I never, ever told Caribbean jokes. After that, to be honest, I did a whole other thing I pivoted.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Really Okay. So tell me what's going through your mind in that entire year, like why didn't you get? Is it because that experience went so well that you were kind of like let me not do it again? And what made you get back on the stage?

Speaker 2: 14:19

Yeah, I think it was.

Speaker 2: 14:20

I will not do it again. That was perfect. That felt amazing, and I think what brought me back was a combination of things, cause I believe, like, whenever you make a really big pivot in your life, it's never just one moment. It's like a bunch of little things that happen incrementally that really crystallize, like, okay, this is the thing that I should be doing. So after that I was doing I think I was doing improv with my comedy group and I took like anything that I did, especially like coming from a dance background, I approached things like an athlete. So, the same way with X Factor, my college dance group, whenever we would perform, we would get in the room and we'd be like let's watch the tape, let's see what we could have done better With improv.

Speaker 2: 15:01

Improv is a type of thing where somebody in the audience throws out a suggestion and you and your group you wing it and you make a whole scene, but based on nothing, and I would be like let's watch the tape. And my group was like what are you talking about? Watch the tape, this is improv. We made this up. There was no room for us to be better. And I was like I now need to perform solo. I am not a solo act because with standup comedy, you record your set every night and when you're done, you listen to it. You listen to it for improvement, you go this is where it could have been better, and so I think that the thing that drove me to do standup was the solo aspect, but, more importantly, because I had control over my own success in a way that I didn't have in other art forms.

Speaker 1: 15:43

So did you ever experience that tough crowd that you were to date, that you were kind of like you had to turn them, or like you're like? No, I'm funny.

Speaker 2: 15:56

Yes and no. Like everybody bombs yeah, Everybody. You will have a show where it's not your best set. But I've been doing stand-up solely for about 11 years now and I can probably still count them on. I'm still scared of bombing because I haven't done it enough. I don't bomb, I don't like it, I don't bomb.

Speaker 1: 16:18

You're like I'm trying to avoid that feeling as much as possible. Yeah, you can't really avoid it, though, so I just like prepare as much as I can and I trust myself to be able to deliver. I like that approach. If you prepare, then you can kind of deal with whatever comes at you. So there has been a lot of conversations around comedy, particularly with Club she, she, since, ever since Cat Williams been on the scene.

Speaker 2: 16:46

Why you gonna do that now, mckella. Oh, come on now. Why you gonna do that, mckella? She, she's a trip.

Speaker 1: 16:54

So, but I think it's interesting because I haven't seen this many comedians in the space talking and doing podcasts as I have since that interview. So tell me about your experience, like if you read into what Cat was talking about, is it really that bad or is it like just his era or his experiences? Tell me about the comedy scene for you as a black woman coming up right now.

Speaker 2: 17:24

Well, what specifically about the Cat industry?

Speaker 1: 17:27

It just felt messy, like messy boots. He's there sharing all of the different truths about different comedians, about their routines, stealing jokes, being locked out of situations Like is that something that you have experienced? Like what has your experience been coming up over the years that you kind of encountered?

Speaker 2: 17:55

A whole range of things. First of all, when you're a woman, people automatically assume you're not funny, so that's just the regular stuff. Or when you're a woman, they usually it's a male host, and so they'll be like ladies, you ready for the next comic? Come to stage, ladies, ladies, ladies, we got a female for you. And so very early in my career I've learned to go up to host and be like listen, cause they'll be like how do you want to be introduced? Which usually means like what are your credits? And so I'll tell them. I'll be like you could say whatever you want about my credits, but do not introduce me as a lady. And they are generally stumped. They be like so what you want me to say? I'm like say what you say when you bring somebody else up. We have a funny comic coming to the stage, and the reason is first of all as a woman.

Speaker 2: 18:42

I'm not just telling jokes for the women, Like you guys assume, like I don't tell jokes from my vagina. There's no need to identify my gender before I get here. My thoughts are. My thoughts are carries. These are my thoughts. I do not wish to represent every woman, every black woman, so when they go, ladies, we got one for you.

Speaker 2: 19:00

Watch all the men get up, they go to the bathroom, the women they get up, they go to the bathroom, they start scrolling on their phones because it subconsciously signals oh, there's a woman coming up, she ain't gonna be funny, let me take a break. And so early on in my career I had to counteract that. So that's one thing that happens. People do try to steal your jokes, and somebody tried to do that to me once, and that was the last time he tried to do that. Because I'm not playing with you, I'm not playing, I'm not playing at all. I let people know very quickly, like before I was telling jokes, I was beating bitches up. Please don't play with me. Okay, the Brooklyn will come out like hehehe, it's all funny, hehehe, it's not funny, don't play with my jokes. Um, but now I meditate and so I no longer wish harm on you.

Speaker 1: 19:42

Try try it, try it, hehehe.

Speaker 2: 19:47

you all pray until until somebody dry your oats Girl, don't, don't make me go back but I also learned that you can't do anything about people stealing your jokes, except for make your things more personal to you. And so when I tell my personal personal stories, like, and as you get older in comedy, your jokes do become more personal, like the joke that he said Cedric Entertainment stole from him. That was a joke that anybody could see and take, because it was just about you know what it's like for black people to be in a car listening to music. Any other person could take that. But if I'm telling a very personal joke about me going to four high schools and whatever, whatever, that's a unique story to me. So, um, those are some of the experiences and things that I have faced that I can relate to with what Kat Williams was talking about.

Speaker 1: 20:40

You've been on a couple of different like film and television projects. How did you, how did those opportunities come about? How did you get involved with with some of the work that you've done?

Speaker 2: 20:53

So my very first time on TV it was the Nightly Show on Comedy Central with Larry Wilmore and it was right in was it 2016? 2016 when they killed some black person. It was at the beginning of all of the. It was right before Black Lives Matter and it was when the cops were just starting to go crazy and I used to be very vocal on Facebook.

Speaker 2: 21:19

And one of the girls who I actually did improv with she had a day job working at the Nightly Show and she was like you have a very strong perspective on this and we're looking for a panelist because somebody dropped out tonight. Do you think you can show up tonight in like an hour? And I was like say less? And I showed up in whatever I had on and I was like put me on TV. And so that began like my first foray on Kat.

Speaker 2: 21:45

I lied that was not my first time on TV. My first time on TV was actually in high school on MTV, but that was not comedy related. So my first time as a comedian was on the Nightly Show and when you're a standup comedian, a lot of opportunities open for you just to just be talking, especially on these new shows, because people like people who are informed, or as informed as comedians can be. But comics are known for our perspective and how we look at things might not be the way that everybody approaches it. So that was the contributors to like a lot of my early success. And then, once you get an agent, you start auditioning for stuff. And once I started auditioning for TV shows, then I started being booked on TV shows.

Speaker 1: 22:29

Now, do you have like any like comedians or actors, actresses, that you find inspiring to, like their journeys inspiring to you as an artist? Yeah, sure.

Speaker 2: 22:44

I love Issa Rae's journey, just from somebody who has started from her own web series to see where she is today. And I love her as an example because she's contemporary and it's like you don't have to look so far back, like growing up or even 10 years ago. When I first started comedy, my inspiration was Whoopi Goldberg. It was great to see Whoopi Goldberg be a multi hyphenate and do all the things that she does and carve out a lane for her, whereas, like she is Whoopi, that is it. There's no one greater than Whoopi to me, especially coming up and growing up. But now I'm inspired by everybody. I'm inspired by the people on TikTok, I'm inspired by the Quinta Brunson's, the Donald Glover's. I'm inspired by so much of my contemporaries because I see how much my peers are making of the current landscape and I love that.

Speaker 1: 23:38

And as you were auditioning for roles and you also have writing credits, particularly on Flatbush, Mr Meanest, so tell me about that Like. What was that like for you to kind of flex both?

Speaker 2: 23:54

WebWitch Misimina started out as a web series and the two leads of the show they're also stand-up comedians, and so in the web series they just had a bunch of other stand-up comedians in it. And so I already played Kevin's Love Interest in the web series version of it. And when it got picked up for TV it was right after the pandemic, and I used the pandemic to write my TV sample. You gotta have, you have to be able to show that you know how to write an episode of television. And I was pitching my own TV show at the time and so I wrote my sample and or my pilot. And when they were looking for writers for Flatbush Misdemeanors, they reached out to me and was like, oh, do you know, do you know how to write TV? And I was like, actually, thank God, thank God, the pandemic happened because I had all this time to polish this writing sample. So then I booked the writing job and then, when I was in the writer's room, you know, it came up that Kevin would be looking for Love Interest and we were writing for her.

Speaker 2: 24:50

And in the room it happens. It happens in the room I'm in now. I'm currently I'm at work, I work for an Apple TV show and I'm in the room and they created a character for me to play. So it just happens where, and the same thing happens to Natasha Rothwell. She's a writer, but she was so good in the writer's room that they gave her a role on Insecure as Kelly. So sometimes you happen to be so grateful and so fortunate and all the stars have to be aligned where you're able to do both right in the show and then the people in the show like damn, you're really good, let's put you on camera in this role.

Speaker 1: 25:24

I love it. I think it's educational for me, because I'm like just wanting to know more about what that process is like, and I think just sharing your journey is is interesting to just hear all of the different touchpoints, cause what it really feels like is you're good at being prepared, right, so you're always prepared for the opportunity, continuously writing, continuously practicing, and when the right opportunity shows up and presents itself, you're there to step in and kind of do your best work, and I love that. That is extremely inspiring. So I don't know if anybody's ever told you that, but that's what I think.

Speaker 2: 26:05

Oh well, thank you. I think so much of that is that we tend to be very results oriented in most things, but also particularly in my industry. Like people will create shows, and in the creation of those shows they're like this gonna be the one that wins the Emmy, we're gonna win an Oscar, this is. And so what happens that that doesn't happen? For you, then, is everything that you did all for naught, like, is there no value to be had in the journey, and so what you call preparation, I love that, but I just call being in love with the process and the journey and not really being fixated on where I think I'm gonna end up, cause I don't know what the opportunities are for me. You know, you might think you want an Emmy and you don't get it, but it opens up some other thing. That opens up some other thing. That opens up some other thing. So just fall in love with the work and everything else would take care of itself. See, that was very Zen.

Speaker 1: 26:56

Listen, listen. Your meditation is on 10. Like I feel it, I feel the energy. So how did the writer's strike impact you? I'm sure it did, but when it happened, what were your initial thoughts? And how has it impacted you since getting back to work?

Speaker 2: 27:16

Great question. So when the writer's strike happened, I was at the top of my game. I had just came back from three months in LA where I was a part of a writer's skills showrunners program which is like highly competitive for the future showrunners of America, and I was just selling a TV show to Showtime and I was up for two different writing jobs and I was like, oh yeah, I'm cooking with grease, this is great. And then the writer's strike happened and everybody was like, what do we do now? And I was like, oh, I'm going to create.

Speaker 2: 27:53

This is the thing that the universe keeps telling me to do, and I truly think that that is the only way is to control what you can't control. If you sit down and wait for these people to give you a job and wait for the industry to come back, then you're letting opportunities pass you by and you're also powerless, and for me it was not a constructive, helpful place to be, and so during the strike, I used it to create opportunities. I wrote more, so I started writing my one woman show that I've been thinking about doing for such a long time. I went back to doing more stand up. I just started creating shit. I just started creating. So I think that that was the thing with the strike is just being ready for when the world does open up. And thankfully, right after the strike came back, I got a writing room job the one that I'm in now and so, literally once the announcer strike was over, I got a call like great, we're up again. Are you still free? And I was like, oh hell yeah, I am.

Speaker 1: 28:53

So tell me about the project that you're on now, the show that you're on now.

Speaker 2: 28:57

So I write for a drama on Apple TV. It's a new show, so it has not been announced yet and the two of the main characters are of Caribbean descent. And I've become the girl that if people want to tell a new and it's a New York story if people want to tell a story in New York and if they want to tell any story that has any Caribbean people, you need me to be on it, and I'm not mad at that. At some point I'll probably feel like I'm pigeonholed, like I can do more than that, but right now I love that for us.

Speaker 1: 29:30

I love it. For us, too, we need more pop, more pop, more pop, more.

Speaker 1: 29:35

But, I also think that we've been talking a lot about film and writing and television and the more people that are behind the scenes to really be voices to our experiences and even incorporating like I think you've done like a really good job of incorporating, even if it's not like the main portion, you know what I mean Like give it like a seasoning, you know. So I think that that's cool. I'm excited, I can't wait. You gotta share, when you can, what that is so I can tune in for sure. I have my Apple subscription, so you know I'm good. But let's switch gears a little bit, because you are also the founder of Kwanzaa Crawl, so tell me about that.

Speaker 1: 30:24

I've been twice. I went to the one in Harlem and I went to when you had two locations. I went to the one in Harlem and then I went once in Brooklyn. And that is a time child, it is a time as a mom. I had to muster up the energy to post Christmas Day, energy to go, so I bought my tickets a little early so I can make sure I plan to go. But I had like a wonderful experience. And but tell me how you started that and why you started that.

Speaker 2: 31:00

So it was again in 2016,. After all of the consecutive killing of unarmed black men, it was just we all felt very powerless, like what are we gonna do? This keeps happening. And I don't know if you could tell the theme of the last 32 minutes. I don't like situations where I feel like my destiny is up to other people and so I'm not waiting for anybody to come save me. I'm tired of begging white people to stop killing us. I'm tired of doing. I'm tired of all of that, and I was like what is it that we can do to empower ourselves? Because I do believe that the people do have the power.

Speaker 2: 31:37

And so the shortest version of how we came up with Kwanzaa Crawl is we realized that in order for black people to see any types of systemic improvement in this country, we need political power, and in America, in anywhere, you can't have political power without economic power. That's just how it works. Politics and money are intrinsically intertwined. And so we were like okay, if we're focusing on black economics, what does that look like? We were like well, how can we get the money circulating in the black community and how can we demonstrate in one action the power of cooperative economics? And so Kwanzaa Crawl came out of a need to see what does it look like when you get black people on one page for one day for one goal All of the black owned businesses.

Speaker 2: 32:30

Even though you don't usually operate like this, could you just, for one day, open up your venues, remove all your furniture? We know y'all not a club, but could you pretend to be a club for this day? And then we get all the black people to come out wearing whatever makes them feel unapologetically black. And then we go around and we basically round robin, hop around, cause it's a bar crawl. We literally we take 5,000 people and we divide them into different groups of like 100 people and we rotate them throughout all of these black owned bars for like seven hours, which is insane. And the whole goal is at the end of the day, can we track how much money this one day event brought in? And so the last time we did it, we brought in over $500,000 in one day for black owned businesses. So we just want to track the power of the black dollar.

Speaker 1: 33:17

That's amazing, and I think tracking it is important because that's where the strength is, in the numbers. So how was it? Did you have to convince a lot of these bars and restaurants to kind of get involved? I would imagine like the first time it was probably like okay, yeah, maybe. But now that they've seen the results and you have a few years behind you, I'm sure it's easier now. But what was it like in that initial event that you started? What was that process like for you?

Speaker 2: 33:48

The first year we started. I used to be the door girl at Voodoo, which was my favorite black owned bar in Bed-Stuy, and I had a really great relationship with them because I worked with them and for them and they were the best. And so I went to the people who I thought would say yes first. So I went and I asked my old boss. I was like, if I was, to say I was like what dare you the slowest?

Speaker 2: 34:09

And that's how also it came to be the day after Christmas, because any other day, if you did it on a weekend even the restaurants that aren't doing well on the weekend that's their busiest day. So you don't wanna come in and replace their busiest day if you're trying to help them and the goal in helping them is to do it on a slow day. So I was just like what's the slow day? He was like the day after Christmas and it fell on a Monday that year, and so I just put feelers out and you know, a lot of black businesses aren't closed on Mondays. So I was like how about y'all don't close on this Monday?

Speaker 2: 34:40

What happens if you open up and we get a couple hundred people in here and once you get one respected venue on board, like you tell Sugar Cane that Voodoo did it. Sugar Cane's like Voodoo's in, all right, we in. Then you go and you tell three to three that Sugar Cane's in and they like Sugar Cane's doing it. Okay, and so that's how that's been the premise for the whole thing for the last seven years.

Speaker 1: 35:04

And it's grown for over the last seven years. Like where do you think it's going to go? Like it's getting bigger and bigger. So what are your hopes in terms of the next few years for Kwanzaa girl?

Speaker 2: 35:20

That's an interesting question because my sister and I do it and we're always trying to talk about, like what does success look like for us? And I think on the outside, success to everyone is bigger. You had 30 venues, 50, you had 5,000 people. Do 10,000 people?

Speaker 2: 35:36

However, for us, we want to find the right balance between helping the right amount of businesses and also keeping the integrity of the event, and so, honestly, I would be fine if we just did what we did every year, like for me, it doesn't happen. When I first started, we was like every city, every country, everywhere in the world. Now I'm cool if it's just we do this right here and it's just a nice thing, and even if the demand is great, if it feels like a thing that is not going to be fun once it expands like 10,000 people, if it's getting out of control, we're absolutely not interested in that. So that's my goal. My goal is to maintain the integrity of the event, making sure that it stays about Kwanzaa and black people first, and the bigger it gets, the more diluted the spirit of it gets. So we're keeping a fine eye on exactly how our vision for this event is being maintained as we grow.

Speaker 1: 36:37

I love that Because even in me asking the question about growth, I never really kind of considered or thought about what that experience would be like, as you, you know, get bigger because you don't have as much control there. You know what I mean. Like I totally get like wanting to keep it the same vibe and the same energy that you bring, and just bring that same love every year, consistently, over over time, without the need to focus on growth. I think I'm like, yeah, I've never really even thought about that or considered that, because with growth comes even more responsibility and you know it again, it might not be the the vision that you have. So I think that that's that's really poignant for me.

Speaker 1: 37:27

So I take that with great feedback and even just asking the questions. But I know you kind of alluded to like what you're working on. Now you seem like you got a few things up your sleeve. So tell me, like, what else can we truly expect from you in the, in the future, that you can share? I know you have comedy still going, so tell me more about what you got coming up.

Speaker 2: 37:52

Sure. So the TV show that I got an offer from Showtime to buy before the strike fell through and I mean it's a show that is set in Karnarsi, it is so personal, it's literally about my life. It's an homage to my late grandmother, and so the story is about a Caribbean family and a girl who her grandmother leaves her in inheritance and she ends up having to move back home. She used to live in a fancy luxury apartment in Bed-Stuy, but you know the rents is rising and things are happening, and so when her grandmother passes away, she moves back home and it's just about like even the journey of being someone who considered themselves a successful 30 something year old but post pandemic, maybe losing your business, getting evicted and the business are going up, and how sometimes grown adults have to go back home in a physical but also a spiritual sense. And what does that look like for 30 something year olds who are adults but still live very closely with their family and their parents and trying to redefine for themselves what success looks like, especially when you have these immigrant as parents who are telling you what it looks like? And so she moves back home and she is. She's first of all reminded about how, like you know, canarsie is this one place that has not been gentrified. And so if you, if you come from Bed-Stuy, where you use to your oat milk and your cafe, and you try to go back, it's almost like you're a fish out of water, like wait what I got to take $3 vans and like what's going on, and so there's a little bit of that. And then there's also like I'm not going to play the same games that my family is asking me to play. So the family, that's like keep family business and he family in.

Speaker 2: 39:36

You know how Caribbean people are very much like secretive and don't tell people this, she's not here for all of that, and so she literally blows up the family because all the secrets the secret pedophiles, the secret babies, the secret whatever she's like uh-uh, if I'm back home now, we all got to heal and deal with this together. So I'm very, very excited about that. I'm producing it myself, I'm going to make it a web series. I'm going to be able to cast authentic Caribbean people. I'm going to make the show that I want to make and it's going to be for us, by us, fiiwi, by we.

Speaker 1: 40:11

So that is Fiiwi by we, that's it.

Speaker 2: 40:14

I'm very excited about that.

Speaker 2: 40:16

We are going to start crowdfunding and getting people to help us make the show, because if it's one thing I learned, being a Caribbean person and being a Caribbean person in television, I am acutely aware of how it happens when we see non-Wistening people playing with staining roles. So the Barb Marley thing is a big thing. There's so many different versions that our whole lives we've been waiting for people to get this right. Our whole lives it's like again, I'm not waiting for them to get it right, I'm going to do it myself. So I'm excited about that.

Speaker 2: 40:47

And then the other thing that I'm excited about is my one-woman show, and that's another autobiographical experience and story, and that's all about growing up, going to that Caribbean. It's a Caribbean Christian Pan-African school is where I went from pre-kate to eighth grade and then having to graduate from that and go directly into the New York City public school system where I got kicked out of four different high schools. And so that is the whole journey that I'm telling in my one-woman show that I'm excited about. And then I have an hour of stand-up comedy that I'm working on.

Speaker 1: 41:26

I love it and I love how you come in full circle to your story and really using it as inspiration. And, like you said, a lot of Caribbean folks are like don't tell the people that we're business. How has your family responded to some of you drawing inspiration from your life and kind of incorporating elements? I don't know how much is yours and how much is the balance of creative versus real life, so tell me about that.

Speaker 2: 42:03

Well, thankfully I have a family who has always been encouraging of me, and so I've been this way my whole life. So they already know like they just waitin', they already know that I don't really know how to. If you tell me a secret, I'm going to keep it, but if there's something that's a part of my life, I'm going to tell it. And so sorry if you don't like the way you came out and my story. You should have been nicer to me. I love it.

Speaker 1: 42:33

Kari, have you seen my Marley film? What did you do? I've done it twice. You've done it twice. What did you do? I?

Speaker 2: 42:39

thought it was great. I thought it was great, I thought it was really well done. I thought that and it might be the very first time that I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it, I've seen it it's the very first time that I've felt that way about a Caribbean story that has not been played by a Caribbean person, and the reason is for several reasons. Well, and I know people have a lot of critiques about the Barb Marley movie. One, it's not a documentary, so I didn't expect it to tell all the parts of his life. Two, when the family is behind a biopic, you know that you're going into it with a certain level of biases anyway, that you're not going to get the ugly truth of it all, and so I was fine with that. And also, although the lead guy is not Jamaican, I actually thought that he was more competent than a lot of the people that I've seen try to attempt it. And also they cast actually authentic Jamaican people around him.

Speaker 2: 43:31

So there was not the people in his band, the Rasta man I used to be Rasta, and so I cried big, big, dirty tears when I saw the Nayin Bingi, because I've never seen the Nayin Bingi through the screen. I've been to it at Prospect Park, july 23rd, fasalasi's birthday, but I've never seen it on television. So to see Rastafarianism be depicted in such a respectful way, where it's not just about Brun and Ganja and it's not just about having locks and doing all this, like to actually see Rastafarianism be depicted in the spiritual way, I was like I don't know if it's my own Rasta bias, but I was like okay, I like did you see it? Yeah, yeah, I saw it.

Speaker 1: 44:15

They've get it right. They've get it right. Yes, yes. Well, I have a long podcast episode on recap of that, so I thought it was good. I did want more, but Kingsley did a great job. I think he did a really, really good job. He did a great job and I will say this.

Speaker 2: 44:30

I will say this I was telling it to my cousins because she's like I'm not going to go see it because I and being in the industry, there is a line because I'm already starting to see and hearing and other meetings that I've been taking, that in shows that were supposed to be Caribbean people and setting Caribbean people that the networks are like did you see the Barb Marley backlash? Well, you know what? Why don't we take this Jamaican guy and make him American instead? Because we don't even want to deal with it. So some of us like the backlash, we feel like we're going to do it right.

Speaker 1: 45:04

No, we're not.

Speaker 2: 45:04

We're going to force them to not do it at all, and so now we're not going to see our story. We're going to see our stories way less now.

Speaker 1: 45:12

I think that's sad and the reason why I say this is because we have to give ourselves the space to critique one another. So it's not necessarily a criticism of the film houses, but, again, films get critiqued all the time and you're gonna have a and your connection to the filmmakers and the creators can play a part in how you view the films objectively. So it's not necessarily that it's just about the accent. My producer her name is Carrie, carrie Ann she actually, you know, said she said something a while back where it's like if we get two out of three, I think it's good, a good storyline, the accent, and there was one more shoot Now my shop's Carrie analogy and I'm like you're right, it's either you're gonna get the accent and the storyline or you're gonna get the connection to the actual film or the actors.

Speaker 1: 46:29

Like you might not get all of what you want and we should be allowed to not have it be perfect, but still be supported. Right, they still make rom-coms, whether they're good or not and whether they're funny or not. Sitcoms still get made, they just get canceled. So I don't think that we, as Caribbean people, should be pigeonholed into not either it being really good and positive or just be thrown in the garbage. You know what I mean. So, like I know, I'm not in those rooms, but I'm complete on your side.

Speaker 2: 47:01

It's like in dollars and cents, and the difference in rom-coms is white people, and so when we are such a small subset of the population and we don't show up to support certain things, it's like well if y'all don't like it we was doing this for you, and if we don't like it, then and so that is just, and I'm not advocating Matter of fact, I am advocating. I'm making my shit myself. Yes, yes, and I don't need this person whatever, like, I'm gonna make it because we need it.

Speaker 1: 47:31

Yes, I agree, I agree. Well, thank you so much. I totally appreciate this conversation. I really love everything that you're doing. I'm gonna get out to a comedy show, but you know, missy, how Funny is on a regular basis, so I know that that's gonna be good. But tell the people then where they can find you and how they can keep in touch with you.

Speaker 2: 47:54

Sure, you can find me at Overfab. So that's Over, not under. Fab Everywhere in the world, Overfabcom.

Speaker 1: 48:05

All right. Thank you so much, keri. I totally appreciate you being on the podcast and really just connecting with me, looking forward to getting together with you soon and until next time, lea time and peeps Bye, thank you. Thanks for listening to the latest episode of the Style and Vibes podcast. If you like what you hear and I know you do share it with your friends and family. If you want more, make sure you visit stylingvibescom and follow us on our social channels, twitter and Instagram at Styling Vibes. Until next time, lea time and peeps, I hope to be 존oss.