This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:05] Jan Svendsen: Welcome to the Broadway Gives Back Podcast.

[0:07] Jan Svendsen: I'm your host, Jan Svendsen.

[0:10] Jan Svendsen: This podcast spotlights Broadway actors, shows, and organizations in their pursuit of social impact and philanthropy.

[0:17] Jan Svendsen: Join us as some of the brightest lights on Broadway share their stories about their favorite charities and how they got involved and the people and the causes who benefited from these philanthropic efforts.

[0:34] Jan Svendsen: Before HAMILTON, before In the Heights, there was Freestyle Love Supreme.

[0:38] Jan Svendsen: From their hit 2019 Broadway show to a Grammy-nominated documentary, this amazing hip-hop improv squad not only delights audiences with their talented tongues and their clever wordplay, they're training freestyle rap artists of all ages.

[0:53] Jan Svendsen: I'm thrilled to welcome four members of this amazing crew here today.

[0:58] Jan Svendsen: And I can't wait for you to hear the special freestyle rap they're gonna do for us later in the show.

[1:03] Jan Svendsen: So now I'd like to welcome Anthony "Two Touch" Veneziale, Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan, Aneesa "Young Nees" Folds, and Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft.

[1:13] Jan Svendsen: Welcome to the Broadway Gives Back Podcast.

[1:21] Chris Sullivan: You said jelly donuts so seriously.

[1:23] Aneesa Folds: I like that respect on it.

[1:27] Anthony Veneziale: Thank you. I respect the jelly donut thing.

[1:29] Jan Svendsen: Um actually, speaking of your rap names, um, let's go right there. Um so Lynn Miranda is Lynn Man and Chris Jackson is C Jack. Um, how did you guys get your rap names? Like, do you give them to yourselves or just somebody give them to you? Um so why don't we start with Two Touch?

[1:49] Anthony Veneziale: Hi, Two Touch. Um, so yeah, I think for me it was handed to me. Um it was something that I'd been doing, I've been doing freestyle rap inside of improv for a pretty long time. And I had a troupe in New York called the Pedestrians, which was a fun reaction to a New York Times review from a very early production that Tommy Kale directed. Um they said the direction was pedestrian, and we're like, let's call ourselves the pedestrians. Um so yeah, that was on Hello Herman, which was a piece at Backhouse Productions, an early production company that was helping to, you know, work with Lynn and all that kind of stuff. I got Two Touch from my buddy John Newman and Neil Stewart. They named me Two Milk in a scene, and then we do this thing called a two-touch, which was the format of improv that we did.

We this was when people would bring CDs with them or an iPod and we'd ask for somebody's iPod and then hook it into our sound system and then randomly choose a song, and then the song would play, and then we would have to recreate the song with just our voices. And we do a bunch of scenes, and then we would recreate a second version or an alternate take of the song. Think like Beatles BBC anthology stuff, right? It was like, oh, let it be the B side, right? Like here's the different version of Let It Be. Uh, and that was called doing a Two Touch. And so they just then started calling me Two Touch after that. It's also a soccer move that I particularly love to do as well. So it kind of has it hits a lot of the key indicators for me.

[3:17] Jan Svendsen: I'm gonna call you Two Milk from now on, though.

[3:19] Anthony Veneziale: Yeah, I just love it. That's what I got. Oh, here it is. Oat and soy.

[3:25] Chris Sullivan: Yeah.

[3:25] Jan Svendsen: Um so jelly donut. I'll say it again respectfully, donut. Mr. Donut.

[3:32] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Uh mine was handed to me.

[3:34] Jan Svendsen: Yes, please.

[3:35] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Um, senior donut. Uh mine was handed to me as well from my mom, because I was a chubby baby and it was a food, you know, a term of endearment. She called my brother who had red hair carrot cake or pumpkin pie. He kind of went back and forth, but I was just always jelly donut because I was you can see pictures of me as a baby. It's kind of like a little squishy, squishy thing. And then that's about as gangster as I felt when I started rapping, and I was like, yeah, that works. Um she's still very, very proud. She's she takes all the credit.

[4:16] Chris Sullivan: Shockwave?

[4:16] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Yeah.

[4:17] Chris Sullivan: Ah, yes. Um, I was doing improv um in college, and it was for a short form improv group, which is a bit more jokier of a version of an improv set, and everybody had uh nicknames, stage names, and it was generally assigned by somebody else in the group. And we were doing this game where somebody would be doing uh something on stage and they had 30 seconds to die, and they could not make noise, but somebody off stage was making the noise for them. So we had a microphone set up. Um, and I wasn't you know actively beatboxing then, but uh I guess my skills sort of came out then, and so uh the nickname was Shockwave because it was actually a misname because Shockwave is the transformer that turns into a gun, but Soundwave is the transformer that turns into the boom box and makes the music. So I was named after the wrong transformer, but um, I'd actually have a beautiful picture by an artist that was given to me at the stage door.

[5:24] Jan Svendsen: Yeah of uh very cool.

[5:27] Chris Sullivan: That's Sound Wave. This is great podcast material.

[5:30] Jan Svendsen: Yeah.

[5:31] Chris Sullivan: Awesome, awesome illustration.

[5:34] Anthony Veneziale: Shock milk.

[5:39] Aneesa Folds: Well, I guess it's kind of obvious where yours came from, but why don't you talk about that?

[5:45] Aneesa Folds: Um I actually gave mine to myself. Um, because I'm original, just kidding. Um I um I when I was in high school, I just I used to um have my friends like bang on the table and I would just rap over what they were doing. I didn't take myself very seriously when it came to rap, but it was just something I liked to do. There was an artist named Young B, and she had a song, and I kind of just switched my name out with her name and started doing that, and I just became known as that. And um my friends call me that, and then when I got to Freestyle of Supreme, I was like, Oh, I got a rap name, and it worked and it fit. And as I get older, I am rethinking it because that's only gonna last for so long. But we'll figure that out.

[6:31] Jan Svendsen: Just but you're still the youngest member of the crew.

[6:34] Aneesa Folds: Yes, I'm 17 years old.

[6:39] Chris Sullivan: Uh she hasn't graduated high school yet.

[6:41] Jan Svendsen: Yeah. Um you got you all have had such interesting journeys about getting involved with rapping and freestyling. And um, let's start with you, Anthony, because you're one of the co-founders with Lynn Miranda, um, of Freestyle Love Supreme. And I think thank you. There you go. Um, and I know that your journey started probably at the drama. Well, actually, was it did it start at Wesleyan or in the drama bookstore basement? Or tell us how this came to be.

[7:06] Anthony Veneziale: Uh yeah, you know, it started as all good hip-hop in the mid-90s. Um, so I'm lucky to say that like I was being informed by in some what some people regard as like the height of really incredible hip-hop. Not that hip-hop still isn't incredible, it is, and it's always every generation thinks their version of hip-hop is the best, but hip-hop's not for the established generation, it's actually for the disenfranchised. So I started doing improv at Wesley after I got kicked off of the soccer team. Um, and one of the things we did was something called the song game. And in the song game, you're doing a scene, and then the moderator says freeze, and then they get a genre of music from the audience.

And it's the mid-90s. I'm up in at Wesleyan, and hip-hop is ubiquitous, right? Like everyone's listening to the Wu Tang clan to tribe to De La Soul. Like these are the things that like that's every party is uh the Fuji's the score dropped like the year that I got into the improv troop. So, like literally Lauren Hill was blasting out of every room. And so event almost at every show, people would shout out, do rap. Um, and I grew up going to sleep listening to rap music. It's just what the mathematics of rap has always soothed my brain and sort of quieted it down. Like coming up with a rhyme scheme and understanding where it falls in is a lot like Tetris to me, which is something else I did a lot of as well.

And so in my mind's eye, I often would see the words of hip-hop songs falling into place as I would go to bed. It kind of put me to sleep. I I've memorized like 150 albums that way. Like I know a lot of words to a lot of rap songs, so I think I built a neural network to be very like accessible in that way. And so when Song Game happened and they shouted out rap, I was like, oh, I know how to do that. That's that's in my brain already. Um, and it was just something I started really gravitating towards. And at every house party, I just was like, hey, we're all gonna do a circle and we're gonna rap together. And everyone knew if I came to a house party that's okay, watch out. It was like, oh, really?

Um, but it's where I've formed some of my strongest relationships, right? And like that Tommy Kale, he and I cut our teeth doing that together, and Lynn Manuel Miranda, Lynn Manuel Miranda, I think I said it. Well these years. Nobody knows it. And not many people know it's lemonade Miranda. They just miss saying it for all these years. Chris Jackson, like the using that kind of way to like interact with each other and that language, like it just it's such a bonding experience because what you're doing is being very vulnerable. Um, like you're gonna fail. Like freestyle rapping is so hard, it's still so hard. I still am not good at it, but I still have occasional moments where I'm okay at it or I'm like halfway decent at it.

Um, and so that's kind of how it started for me, right? And then when Lynn moved to New York, um, and we were working on In the Heights, I was like, we should do a show. Like, let's let's make this its full own show, and that's kind of how it started for me.

[10:11] Jan Svendsen: It's incredible. And Chris, you've been with Freestyle Love Supreme for over 15 years, I think. How did you join the group? And what's the secret to beatbox vocal percussion? I've tried it, I can't do it.

[10:25] Chris Sullivan: Yet. Uh yes. Just wait, just wait for the lessons. Um FLS Academy will change all that for you. I'm excited. Um we um I I mean I grew up playing music, um, and uh I kind of jumped around from instrument to instrument and ended up in percussion. So rhythm has always sort of been in my blood from a young age. So when I moved to New York, um I also from my improv experience, I was dabbling in improv, and I had been playing around with beatboxing through my love of hip hop and being a part of different garage bands growing up. So um I started performing at open mics or variety shows, and I would get a suggestion from the audience. Um, and that was part of my improv uh improv thinking and wanting to be there in the moment and create something out of fresh, fresh creating something fresh out of thin air.

And um, you know, maybe that was part laziness too. I didn't have any instruments and I didn't have to prepare anything. So I would just show up. Um and so I I was doing this at many shows, and I had other friends who had picked up on Freestyle Love Supreme on the radar, and it was in its like newborn stage. It was probably they saw the first show and then said, Hey, you should check these guys out. So I went to see the show. I didn't know anybody in it. Um, and what I saw was like it totally resonated with me with my improv background, with my humor and with the music. And um, they were using pre-recorded CD instrumentals at the time, and I kind of put two and two together and I met Anthony after the show, and I was like, can we work together? Um hadn't hit puberty yet.

[12:10] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: We hadn't hit puberty yet.

[12:12] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, I was the puberty. Wait, what?

[12:15] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Um so yeah, so we started rehearsing together and it kind of took on a bit of a sprint.

[12:23] Jan Svendsen: And Andrew, I remember we were at, I think it was the opening night party for Broadway, and you were telling me that you came to Freestyle Love Supreme sort of from the left coast. Um is that right?

[12:35] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: I did. Well, interestingly enough, I started freestyle rapping at Wesleyan University as well. Um and you know, I went there as well, um kind of in between Lynn and Anthony, and um I was a fan of Anthony. Uh, you know, he’s got an amazing rap and improv brain, and I was a fan of Gag Reflex, the improv group that he was a part of, uh, is an amazing group.

[12:58] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Um, so I had a buddy Jeff Malamy, who just like pulled me into his dorm room one day. He was like, I think you're gonna like doing this, just like after knowing me for you know a couple of weeks. And he just put on an instrumental cassette tape, and he just started rapping about things in the room, and I was like, what is he doing? What's going on? Oh, can I let me do this? And you know, I had a band in high school, and it was always like writing rhymes and writing music, but this was writing music in the moment at the spot, and somebody else listening to it at the same time, and it just like was the most exciting thing ever, and so funny, and yes, you'd fall down and then it didn't matter, and you'd just laugh.

And so I also became that guy at the party, like getting your friend. There, if you were at a party with Anthony or me, you were probably getting pulled or running away from a cipher or a certain circle of people, you know. And I had a punk band at Wesleyan and our drummer could beatbox. Uh and you know, we'd take Orin and we would go around and we just, you know, drink and rap and freestyle and beatbox, and it was a lot of fun. And then yes, I moved to San Francisco after I graduated in 2000 and started entering rap battles in Oakland, but usually dressed or always dressed as a different silly character. Um I dressed as an old lady and called myself yo mama. I dressed in an actual jelly donut costume.

I would dress as George Bush when he was president just to like get beat up and you know, like lyrically, usually lyrically, um, and just to like add for me, I didn't take myself fully serious as an improv as a rapper. Um, but it also to me the like competitive nature of the battle scene uh creative nature was really strong, but the competitive nature of it didn't fully resonate with me. I wanted to like add a jokey element to it. And then I ran into Anthony on the street, and seeing as we were both the guys at the party who get you to freestyle, we started right then like reconnecting and freestyling that moment. Um started a group that David Diggs and James Eichelhart became a part of and some other musical friends of ours.

So that's when I started flirting from California with Freestyle when I would come back to New York. And now I live in New York and I'm a member and I love it because this version of freestyling really resonates with me because it's not competitive, it's lift each other up, it's crack each other up, it's connect with the audience, uh you know, listening, listening, listening. Um it's yes and it exactly, yes, yes, and and and and so nailed it. So that's me.

[15:48] Aneesa Folds: Um, and I remember your first performance, it blew me away. Ah, scared. So uh you didn't seem scared. Um, y'all lifted each other up. Um, but had it why don't you explain how you got to be part of the group? Sure, yeah. I come from a singing background, I was a singer first, and um I found out about musical theater because I didn't want to go to school just for classical or just for jazz, you know, vocally, you had to focus on either one, and musical theater was this thing that had all of these different genres, and then I heard about In the Heights, and they were rapping in musical theater now, which was something that I had not seen before, and um through In the Heights I found out about Freestyle Love Supreme, and I just remember thinking this is everything I've ever wanted to do in one thing, and I thought it was incredible.

Um, you know, seeing these guys on stage and just watching their brains work and the interaction with the audience, and also what Jelly just said. Um, like I don't think I could do battle rap, I'm very sensitive, and I just don't know how that would work out, but um just seeing the love and the positivity and the way that they were connecting with the audience was very exciting, and um then I saw I mean then I saw that they were having an academy, and I joined that academy, and Chris Shockwave Sullivan was my teacher, and um then I got to perform with him and Jelly at this performance, um, which I never thought would happen, and then I got asked to audition for Broadway. Um, and every time I tell the story, I'm like, wow, it really did happen that way.

Because I used to go see them when I was like high school, college, I used to go see that show, and I never in a million years thought it would happen like that. Um I was also that you were 17. Yeah, when I was seven, like it's you know, it's been crazy that I'm just so young. Yeah, it's so wild. But um, I mean, I was also low key that person at the party. It was just a party trick. I never took it seriously. I never thought that anything would come of it. So I just feel so lucky to be in this world and doing all the things that I love in one with wonderful people, and we're just lifting each other up and acting foolish on stage, which is also really crazy to uh, you know, to be a fan of like these guys and and Lynn for a really long time and to see before they go on stage, oh I'm so nervous.

Um, as I said to you, my first performance, I was scared out of my mind. We had a week of rehearsal. Okay, that is not how that is supposed to go, especially you know, when these people know each other for Broadway and they know each other inside and out, it is very intimidating. Um, but you really just I was thrown into the water and I learned how to swim and I had people helping me so I wouldn't drown.

[18:55] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: And she crushed it and continues to crush it and blows our minds every day. I mean, come on. So young. Um I want to go to I want to go to parties with you guys. You all were there. Yeah, we're gonna throw you on the saber. All of us want to go to parties with anyone. Oh my gosh, please. What's a party? Soon we will be. Um I just a little plug here, everyone listening. Um, we're gonna stick around for this the rest of this podcast because we're gonna actually have a special freestyle rap from Freestyle Love Supreme later in the show. Bick a break, I want to talk about something very exciting. You guys are nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Music? Yeah. No? Oh my god. Um for best music film for We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, which is currently um on Hulu. Um, how do you guys feel? And where were you when you found out about that?

[19:48] Chris Sullivan: I don't think it was just now. I think I got a Google alert.

[19:54] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Yeah.

[19:54] Chris Sullivan: My friend texted me and was and said, uh congratulations. I was like, what?

[19:58] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Yeah, yeah, me too.

[19:59] Chris Sullivan: I was just like, um, are you looking at me? Are you watching me? Where am I? What's going on? Um, fingers crossed for the Grammys which are coming up this uh this weekend. And um, and they as they say, it's truly an honor just to be nominated. But I mean, it's pretty amazing. And you guys, and the film is just it's so great.

[20:18] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: And I feel like it's sort of a companion to this podcast, along with seeing the show on Broadway, and you know, just you should do all the things, see all the things, and get all the backstories because it really does complete the entire story of who you guys all are as a group and individually too.

[20:35] Chris Sullivan: Oh, thank you, Jan. Um, just very quickly on the whole Grammy of it all. Um, who would have ever thought that like making up freestyle raps would lead to a Grammy? Um, I just that's not a path that anyone ever imagines. And nor is that a path to like, hey, I'm gonna make up freestyle raps and I'll go to Broadway. Like these aren't traditional streams, right? Nobody swims in that stream thinking, I'm gonna do this. And then to be nominated and to be nominated with ZZ Top, Linda Ronstadt, The Beastie Boys, and Beyoncé. It's like I mean, whose dream are we inside of? Because it's clearly not ours. Like, or the traditional dream that even so it's it's really fun to see that we're breaking the mold of what's possible with this thing.

You know, like using improvisation as a final product has always been like, you know, risky. It's always been scary. And I think a lot of people have like shied away from it because in some ways you're like, it's undercooked. Uh and so for us to kind of create this world in which we're saying it's okay to be undercooked, as long as we're there and supporting each other and saying that what you're doing in this moment is like special and valuable, then I think that message, like now we're on 16, 17 years of doing it, and it's so incredible to see that like people are like, no, that there's something there.

[22:01] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: There's something there.

[22:02] Chris Sullivan: I mean, I and I have there is something there, by the way.

[22:05] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Thank you.

[22:06] Chris Sullivan: That's right. And that's why we created the academy, right? So the academy kind of like is this nesting doll of that whole like journey in a lot of ways.

[22:14] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: But I want to tell one very quick small anecdote about the Grammys happening this Sunday and how my family's reacting to it. So we're having like a little party, we have a pod, we have like two families that we've been going through this all together with, and they're gonna come over. And I overheard my family ordering an ice cream cake for me, and I love ice cream, and I love ice cream cake.

[22:34] Chris Sullivan: What flavor?

[22:36] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: It is my two favorite things in the world chocolate and peanut butter together. So it's a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cake with like a cookie crunch in the middle, and it's chocolate, and it's gonna be gold lettering and gold confetti on it. And the lettering spells congratulations, Beyoncé.

[22:55] Chris Sullivan: That was some serious eavesdropping.

[22:57] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: You got all the details of it.

[22:59] Chris Sullivan: You got like the Carvel receipt.

[23:02] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: That's amazing, though.

[23:05] Chris Sullivan: I am over the moon.

[23:06] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: And I heard you started laughing. I was like, Daddy, and I was like, just right off the other room. They're like, You were there. Like, I'm yes. And I was like, that's brilliant. I was like, you guys, that's the funniest thing I've heard in a very long time. My daughters are seven and ten, and it like it came from them so funny.

[23:21] Chris Sullivan: So funny.

[23:21] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: They know who's gonna win.

[23:23] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, I have no illusions that we're gonna win. It's incredible. Like, and honestly, Black as King deserves to win, right? And that's a message that our country and the world needs to hear over and over again right now. I think the message of we are freestyle of supreme is let's support each other and like figure out how to still be present and show up again and again and again. I think that message it deserves to be out in the world, and that's why we have the academy.

[23:48] Jan Svendsen: Well, you gave me a perfect segue because I do want to talk about the academy, and I also want to talk about improv. And um, I just want to say personally that um I was I am not an actor, never wanted to be, you know, now no talent, but I did something crazy um for my 50th birthday, um, which was a while ago. Um, I went to like a professional improv retreat for three weeks, and I was the only sort of you know, non-professional person there, and it was the scariest thing I ever did in my life, but it changed my life, and you know, I had always I read books about improv and I was so interested in um the whole idea of you know this idea of supporting each other and being in the moment, and you know, some of the words in Air So cliché, but you know, saying yes and and collaboration in that way, and I just felt like that's my philosophy about life, and that kind of brings me back to a little bit to the point of this podcast which is about giving and um so I just felt like it all connected and when I um when I heard about the academy I just thought that's such an important thing to talk about and so I really wanted to ask you guys how did you come up with founding the academy and um you know what's the academy's mission and obviously you've got the star graduate here um in Anissa um and you join you'll end up on Broadway too don't tell them that don't tell them it's a tagline for the agreement so I want to hear about the academy.

[24:09] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, um awesome yeah I think um, you know what Anthony was just saying a moment ago about like this was not a track that it's not a Broadway track freestyle rapping it's not a Grammy track freestyle rapping it succeeded I think because everyone involved was just doing it for the joy of it and the catharsis of doing it and the friendship of doing it and that's and and then just really dug in and dedicated and clearly it also helped to succeed because brilliant minds Anthony Lynn Tommy Anissa James C Jack everyone who kind of touches it are are also like bringing their themselves to it.

[25:57] Anthony Veneziale: But it's something that everyone can access. Joy is great for everyone, play is great for everyone, helping each other, lifting each other up is great for everyone. Is everyone gonna beatbox on Broadway at the end of a lesson? No, but everyone can be supporting each other in trying something new and making noise and making music and sharing their own story.

[26:20] Anthony Veneziale: So we got so much joy and love and friendship out of this that it almost feels at a point that we can't be selfish with this. It's like not a thing that we guard and want to put a copyright and protect on. It's like other people can feel this love and connection and also go through the scariest thing of their lives, like it was for you, and be like, "Oh, I just did the scariest thing I've ever done, and I didn't die." And I actually laughed more than I cried. And when I was crying, it was good for me.

[26:54] Anthony Veneziale: So these are the things that we kind of want to pass on, and we can, and we're already learning so much from our community, our adult community, our kids, from doing this and hearing new voices, hearing people from India starting to freestyle rap with us in beatbox and sharing their stories, you know, hearing kids who are living through a pandemic and what it's like to be stuck at home and not with their friends and them sharing their story.

[27:22] Anthony Veneziale: So it's kind of a beautiful thing that we just keep getting to learn from, and then also being able to jump into corporations who are stuck in their rigid hierarchical, male-dominated structure, and hopefully bringing some joy and communication into their meeting or their workshop and that kind of thing. So it's a gift for us to be able to do this.

[27:52] Jan Svendsen: You guys are serving as instructors and facilitators for the academy, like virtually this whole winter, right? How's that been going?

[27:57] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: We started before the pandemic. I think we were, our foundations of freestyle course in real life would conclude with a performance. And we had five classes going at the same time, and three of the performances happened, and then we were gearing up to make the next two happen, and then everything locked down.

[28:23] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Yeah, Aneesa was teaching it. You know, everybody did what everybody did in the world to try to, "What are we doing with it?" And then once it started to see, "Oh, we can do this, we can continue to do this virtually." We pivoted very quickly. There were weekly rap recesses, we would call them, where it was kind of like this, but it's more of a jam session.

[28:43] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: We'd share a beat, and then people would, you know, we start coming up with different games, and then we quickly started putting together a curriculum that we could teach virtually. So it's been a curse, but it's been quite a blessing because like Jelly said, we have people from India, we have people from Australia, we have somebody in a couple like Bangladesh, England, Canada, Columbia, Tunisia, Poland, yeah.

[29:09] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: And so it's wild. So when we kind of crossfade back into the real world, we're going to continue that virtual offering so that we can continue to keep the world more connected in our way.

[29:22] Jan Svendsen: Aneesa, how do you deal with the people? So there's people of all ages, all backgrounds, right? And all abilities, I guess, too. Like, how do you make people feel comfortable?

[29:30] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, I mean, I think that really is what the mission of the academy is. When I came into the academy, I was nervous, but you know, there were people that hadn't done improv before. There were people that had only focused on rap. We have dentists, we have math teachers, we have Andrew's mom. Like, it does. Yes, Andrew's mom is taking class.

[29:55] Aneesa Folds: And it's just what it is, is creating a safe space to bring yourself to the table. Whatever it is that you can bring, you're just telling your story. And it's just been incredible to watch everyone be game to do this thing because we're just trying to spread joy. We're just trying to hear from you what you want to share with us.

[30:19] Jan Svendsen: I want to talk a little bit about giving, because the academy obviously is such a giving spirit. I've had the privilege to work with you guys, and we've done some really interesting and important fundraising initiatives, including supporting Planned Parenthood and the Hispanic Federation with our friend Lin-Manuel Miranda.

[30:37] Jan Svendsen: So I really want to talk a little bit about the sort of philanthropic side of you guys, in addition to that. And I just wondered what giving back and what giving means, or what philanthropy means to each of you, and what advice you might give your fans about giving.

[30:56] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: What does giving mean to me? I mean, I've had a lot of fun working with the kids, just seeing how they light up, and you know, as adults, we do have certain walls up, we do have fears, but kids are more down to play, they're more "yes and" from the jump because that's how they're born.

[31:44] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: And you know, we're starting to work with organizations like we're doing something with Jack and Jill, and you know, going back to hip-hop is an art form that was from the Bronx and started by black and brown communities, and it's just a way to express yourself, a way to talk about what was going on, what people were dealing with, and I think that that's super important.

[31:44] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: And so for me, it's great to be that representation for those communities so that they are able to see themselves and that they feel safe, and that they know that this is something that is accessible to them, and it's something that they can do to get their voice out in whatever they're dealing with, and you know, we're doing a lot of that, and that makes me really happy, and that's something that's important to me.

[32:11] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, what we do within the academy is giving back the power to folks to be able to find their voice and to not feel judged in so doing. We also are offering scholarships for people who have trouble meeting the financial qualifications for being a part of our program.

[32:34] Chris Sullivan: So it's been really great being able to pair those together and going through the process from jump, from the very very beginning and constructing what does a scholarship process look like. And we've learned a lot about what and how that should be constructed.

[32:51] Chris Sullivan: We have a committee that we call it DICE, which is D I C E Diversity, Inclusion, Creativity, and Equity. We're making sure to include all of the tenets that we've put together within that committee or that team to anything that the academy touches, so that people can become more empowered, feel seen, have their voice be heard, nurture the growth, and really show care for those that we can help facilitate their own journey.

[33:25] Chris Sullivan: So there's a real empowerment aspect to what the academy is pushing for. I mean, while it's so much fun, there's such a serious and important mission for the academy. I think that's become even more clear to us too during this past year.

[33:42] Aneesa Folds: You know, we've heard from a lot of people who feel really disconnected from society and other people. And it's been a hard year for all of us, and I've been lucky enough to have a support network and a job. And I'm not currently going through a mental health situation, and it's just like opened my heart to feel like, "Oh wow, if I'm having this much challenge and struggle this past year, how are people struggling through poverty, social injustice, mental health challenges?" You know, it's just like it's heartbreaking what's happening right now and kind of always in those areas.

[34:26] Aneesa Folds: So I think on a personal level, like community has been really important for us, and making sure that we can have a diverse community where people get to connect and lift each other up, hopefully, and share each their stories. And then as we build a curriculum, you know, that's social justice piece, and like Shock said, making it available to people who can't afford it, making sure that we're creating not just a non-racist curriculum, but an anti-racist curriculum, and that every day what we're doing is trying to not just lift each other up, but lift up folks that we might not have been seeing before and hearing their stories.

[35:05] Chris Sullivan: This is centrally what we as Americans need to face right now. This is centrally the issue that needs to be addressed and undone. So, you know, I think specifically echoing what Jelly just said about anti-racist policies. I think what's really here that we're talking about is the central issue that we need to face.

[35:28] Chris Sullivan: And I think theater is particularly well suited to address, which is we can reflect back, you know, in a mirror, or we can also show a window. Like that's often sort of this metaphor that's used for theater. So the mirror helps to reflect back and let you see what is happening, and the window lets you see into it, get insights and potentially grow and change.

[35:51] Chris Sullivan: I think we have a particular capability of doing both of those things. Improv is an incredible tool to really help people to do that. And so creating anti-racist policies that touch every part of our organization and really informs our mission, which is fostering an inclusive community of diverse voices, if that's the work that we can do, we did it.

[36:16] Chris Sullivan: Like that's all of my time, all of my efforts. Anytime I ever got involved in theater, the very first issue to me was how is this addressing and undoing the steeped racism that's in the policies of our country? And we have a company now, and so we get to make and dictate policy.

[36:36] Chris Sullivan: And if we can create policy that says, "Here's what equitability looks like to our community, here are the voices that need to be highlighted and that need to be in a lot of ways given centered," right? Centered. We have to keep centering. Hip hop is a black art form. Improv was a very white art form. And we're living somewhere in between those two spaces.

[36:58] Chris Sullivan: How can we learn from both? How can we push forward both and create this new thing, this freestyle thing that really in a lot of ways is saying everyone has value and we need to put more value on certain voices right now so that we can make sure that it's an equitable situation going forward.

[37:18] Jan Svendsen: Yeah, absolutely. I remember one of the shows, and I think that the words that were given to you were something like equity, and I remember Jelly, you did a true segment on that. Talking, well, you all did. I forgot who was on stage at that point, but I remember Jelly, for sure, you were doing, you were talking about that, about rap being, you know, this black art form that you are now leveraging that.

[37:47] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Yeah, it was really moving. It was very honest, and it was so vulnerable too.

[37:52] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Yeah, I think I, thank you. I think that, you know, we are standing on the shoulders of giants and generations of giants in the hip-hop world, and then also in the improv and theater world. So as we navigate that, it's really important for us to continue paying homage to the communities that started it, and like Anthony said, making sure that we're not holding the mic for ourselves, we are hopefully building a microphone for everyone, you know.

[38:28] Anthony Veneziale: And Jelly, just real quick, paying, right? The thing that differentiates us from almost any other improv school, we pay our performers. If you are in a class and you are doing a showcase at the end, you will get paid for that showcase.

[38:43] Aneesa Folds: That's equity. That's saying what you did was a performance and it matters and it has value. And we will keep doing that over and over and over again. That is our that is how we are making sure that voices feel valued because this isn't a tent we built. We did not build the tent of hip hop. We did not build the tent of improv. We are inside of it and we need to respect it and we need to show yes, absolutely, pay honor to it and then pay people for it as well.

[39:10] Jan Svendsen: Yeah, sure, sure. I have been asking a lot of my guests when Broadway reopens, which hopefully will be soon. I think we see the light at the end of the talk. Hopefully. But I've been asking people, you know, if you had a magic wand and you could change things on Broadway for the good, what would you what would what would be different? So much of what you've just articulated probably would be in that answer. But I just wondered if there was anything else that you would want to see different on Broadway when it comes back.

[39:44] Chris Sullivan: Um I mean, I do think it's called the Great White Way for a reason. I'll start by saying that. Um, and I'm gonna be honest, a lot of the racial injustices that I've experienced myself have happened in the Broadway community. Um, I want to see more creatives of color. I want to go into an audition room and see myself behind the table. I want more people of color on the teams that are creating this work. I want more stories to be told by people of color. I want to see us populated on stage. I want us to see ourselves when we're on stage. I want to bring diverse voices uh to the forefront. I think that there's just a lot of things that need to be changed. And I think that throughout this time we've been having those conversations. People have been held accountable. And hopefully moving forward, it's stuck and things are going to start to change because it's necessary. It's very, very necessary.

[40:49] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: I think Aneesa nailed it. I would add audiences too. It would be, you know, making Broadway accessible to a more diverse audience. Um I have a personal I don't know if I'm gonna uh turn off a lot of fans or whatever by saying I I love old shows, I love you know shows coming back, um, but I I really get lit up by new stories and new work and and Disney has amazing shows, but I’m hoping that Broadway won't turn into just the sure things of like all the old shows that you've seen before and 20 of them are Disney, you know. I think our nation needs to be to start writing a new story, and the way to do that in my mind is to hear new work and new stories.

[41:41] Anthony Veneziale: Yeah, creating more pathways to that stage, not just a standardized step-by-step and I think would help help with that process.

[41:51] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, pathways and pipelines.

[41:53] Chris Sullivan: Yes, yeah. Funding.

[41:55] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Yeah. I would add just a couple of little scotiers as well on top of that, which to which is to know that like this country is steeped, right, in in problematic policy. And so can Broadway help shift hearts and minds? Because we see that that is a really great initial wedge, right? So a keystone for winning equality in marriage was to make sure each state had a like real knowledge of what it meant to allow people to love who they love, right? And so how can Broadway potentially be used as that as a tool for that to shift policy, to change policy? Because racism, yes, it affects individuals incredibly, and it affects all of us in terrible ways. Like and there's there's you know insights as to white people suffer, you know, health-wise more than black people when it comes to the that them them being racist, right?

Like you can like point to some of these different statistics. I'm not trying to say suffering by one group is more than another. That's not what I'm trying to say. I'm saying health outcomes and like who dies from these policies here in the United States. Um, and obviously the violence that is perpetuated. There's also like, we stole land from Native Americans. And so, like, every Broadway theater should like literally on the outside be like, this was property of the Lenape, like, or you know, like pay honor to where it comes from, because all of this is stolen. I mean, all of this is taken. And so stories can help us kind of undress and unpack some of that damage and that violence. We keep perpetuating violence on on ourselves and on each other in America.

I mean, it's it's intense. And Broadway, I think people come to Broadway to to unpack some of that, but now we need to take it to the next step. Cool, you've unpacked it emotionally, that's wonderful. Now, how do we drive policy change? Because just humans understanding and being educated isn't changing racism in our country.

[43:52] Aneesa Folds: Um a lot of the guests that that I've talked to about this, this has been sort of the number one thing that people have talked about. And so I do feel really optimistic because everyone is bringing this up, and I feel like there's a just a swell of of uh support behind um trying to attack this and being an ally in the right way. Will capital will capitalism allow it, I think is maybe an another, you know, the next like how do we change that institution or create incentives to for people these more uh if everyone's saying it, can that turn into the dollars needed to make it happen? You know, I think that's a good thing.

[44:34] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Well, how can we start telling stories?

[44:36] Aneesa Folds: Yeah, how can we start telling stories that drive us towards uh post-capitalism society?

[44:41] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, we are in late stage capitalistic society. This it is going to fall apart at some point because only the very few are making a lot, and our planet is becoming inhospitable to humans because we've wrote it for ourselves. And so, like, can we create stories that drive us towards that understanding and shifting the narrative between of that zero-sum game that we keep telling ourselves only the rich get richer and the poor get poor? I I really feel hopeful, and um I I I feel like we're, you know, bad comes or good comes out of bad. And um, I'm really hoping that this past year will not be in vain and that that you know there will be some real changes.

[45:20] Jan Svendsen: Um I have no really good segue to get into this, but I'm gonna ask you guys to do freestyle.

[45:26] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, freestyle.

[45:28] Jan Svendsen: Capitalism is thank you. I was thinking, oh, how do I change this? Like Segway noise. I know you brought it brought it down, gonna bring it up. Good to bring it up. Um, so I don't know. Do I do I give you words or how do we do this?

[45:46] Anthony Veneziale: Yeah, that'd be great. Um, how about this? Um we're on a zoom. Could you type uh words into the chat? And then Anthony, why don't I feed some to you and you feed some to Nice and needs to feed some to me? So uh Jan, anything on your mind, your favorite word, um, uh a complicated hard word, a simple, wonderful word. Um, anything to do with Broadway or not?

[46:13] Aneesa Folds: Um uh and yeah, keep them coming too. We'll we'll we'll use a handful of them. Um and then I think we're ready to start. I'm seeing some come in already. Um and Jelly, can we open it up as Brittany, Jim, Zach? Add words in, right? Like whoever's back.

[46:27] Chris Sullivan: Right, right. Yes, please. That would that'd be great.

[46:30] Anthony Veneziale: Uh amazing. Um Anthony, two milk. Your first word is philanthropy.

[46:37] Chris Sullivan: Okay, it's elementary. Yes, we get into so it's philanthropy. We need more than that. It should be a policy that rearranges the flucture of the structure where the money becoming. I'm not drumming, I'm just humming. If I were president, your next word is social activism.

[46:58] Anthony Veneziale: Okay, get back with them. Yes, I'm just trying to get involved with that social activism. Can you change it up like you were Shirley? Is um sure. I'm not a chisholm, but I give respect to the man professor and inspect the deck to protect your neck like I was Wu Tang Clanning. Social activism, bring the whole damn famine.

[47:18] Chris Sullivan: Two milk, your last word is purple.

[47:20] Anthony Veneziale: Uh huh. All right. It's time to get concentrated. It's time to make sure that I'm glad that I made it. Like I had purple Kool-Aid in my hair overnight. Leave it in with conditioner. It's still a fright. My daughters use that every single damn night. Cause they like to make sure the hair looks real tight. Woo!

[47:39] Chris Sullivan: Your first word is sound wave.

[47:45] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Okay. Okay. Yeah, we got shockwave on the beat with the sound wave coming in. Yeah, you know. He better behave because his behavior is really bad. Did I mention shockwave? I'ma send you straight to detention. Okay, yeah, Broadway's coming back, and you better not forget it. Everybody wear your mask, or you better let it, or I'm gonna come in and I'm gonna put it on your face if you don't. If you don't want to see me misbehave, because uh I'm gonna come and I'm gonna take my hands, I'm gonna put them on your mouth. I'm gonna be like, come on, man, you gotta wear your mask. We gotta protect the world. You better listen to me because I'm a 17-year-old girl.

[48:23] Chris Sullivan: Last word.

[48:26] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Okay, I got the mason jar. Yeah, I like to drink my water. I have a mother and a father, I am their daughter. I got two sisters, but you know I'm right in the middle. Yeah, I like to read when I open my Kindle. I take a look in the book, and then I go to the next chapter. Who's coming after me? Yeah, it's you after.

[48:43] Chris Sullivan: Yeah, okay, you all better go nuts, and I'm about to pass some words to Jelly Donut.

[48:48] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Oh, come on, Lise.

[48:50] Anthony Veneziale: Jelly Donut. Your first word is Zoom background.

[48:57] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Uh uh uh uh okay. Here we go. Yes, shock is the sound. Uh Anisa's kick in the zoom background. It says FLS Academy, right behind her. Um, I love that. Yes, I'm not sure. I love that. If you give me words, Joe, I will shout a manisa that she's in the middle, like her name was Malcolm.

[49:16] Chris Sullivan: Vaccine.

[49:18] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Okay, um, yeah. Oh, Madam Maxine, uh, character from Harry Potter. Yes, the vaccine. It's something that I want to get. I need the immunity, so I can be hanging out in a room with my community seriously. Um why these people gotta be trying me. I wanna be face to face with the entire society.

[49:33] Chris Sullivan: Luigi.

[49:34] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Luigi, yes, just to see me. Um, I'm Italian, like my name was two milk. Um, you felt mom's two milk, drinking from two others. That's right. We're kind of like two separated brothers. Yo, that's all right. Luigi drinking all the berry. Um lactose intolerant, so that is scary.

[49:54] Chris Sullivan: Last word is be the change.

[49:57] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Okay, yo, this ain't the strange. All of us can, yes, yes, be the change. And I think we're gonna do just a little bit more. So I passed the two milk because we're trading fours.

[50:08] Chris Sullivan: Oh, we are we trading fours?

[50:09] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: I thought we were we were done.

[50:11] Chris Sullivan: Oh no, I thought I thought you said two, two, two, two.

[50:14] Andrew "Jelly Donut" Bancroft: Oh no, no, no. Uh Anisa and I were on the same page. False start and false end. This is it. Thank you, my friends.

[50:21] Aneesa Folds: Oh, hey.

[50:28] Jan Svendsen: Thank you so much, you guys. I love you all. Thank you. Thank you, James. Thanks so much. Thanks for listening to this episode of Broadway Gives Back. Broadway Gives Back is part of the Broadway Podcast Network. Produced by Dori Berinstein and Alan Seales with Brittany Bigelow. And music by Eric Becker at Broderick Street Music. Special thanks to my producing partner, writer, and friend, Jim Lochner, and to Katie and Yo at BPM. Julian Hills from the Bulldog Agency, the Charity Network, and to my fiancé, Glenn Weiss, who is always my consultant. If you like what you hear, don't forget to subscribe and rate this podcast wherever you stream your podcasts. You can also follow Broadway Gives Back on Facebook and Instagram at Broadway GivesBack Podcast and on Twitter at Broadway Gives. To learn more, visit bpn.fm slash Broadway GivesBack.