This transcript was automatically generated and might contain errors.

[0:00] Steven Ferezy: Take one, Steven and Dana, and we're in the room.

[0:22] Dana Craig: Hi Steven, welcome back.

[0:24] Steven Ferezy: Hi Dana.

[0:25] Dana Craig: Thank you for having me.

[0:27] Steven Ferezy: How was your holiday break?

[0:29] Dana Craig: It was great.

[0:30] Steven Ferezy: How was yours?

[0:31] Dana Craig: Extended.

[0:32] Steven Ferezy: I didn't even look at what our last episode was.

[0:36] Dana Craig: What was it?

[0:38] Steven Ferezy: I didn't either. I'm sure we did like an end-of-year cheer, didn't we?

[0:41] Dana Craig: That's what we tend to do.

[0:43] Steven Ferezy: And then January 15th.

[0:44] Dana Craig: We played our game and we looked at our partner.

[0:49] Steven Ferezy: March flew by.

[0:51] Dana Craig: Well, we got very, very busy.

[0:52] Steven Ferezy: You're producing a documentary about one of the most important people on the planet.

[0:57] Dana Craig: And I'm dressing all the other important people on the planet.

[1:00] Steven Ferezy: Yes.

[1:01] Dana Craig: We got very busy doing what we like to do, where we like to do them.

[1:05] Steven Ferezy: So booked and blessed.

[1:07] Dana Craig: Booked and blessed.

[1:08] Steven Ferezy: And I'm so tired.

[1:11] Dana Craig: Um, so we're just gonna take a nap for this episode.

[1:14] Steven Ferezy: This is a one-hour moment of silence.

[1:18] Dana Craig: Oh no, it's great to see you.

[1:20] Steven Ferezy: We've had little dates here and there, listeners.

[1:22] Dana Craig: Me and Peter.

[1:23] Steven Ferezy: We have had little dates, and that's been nice to get back out in the world.

[1:27] Dana Craig: Yeah, we saw Tig Notaro, our favorite.

[1:29] Steven Ferezy: We did very recently.

[1:31] Dana Craig: We laughed our little tail feathers off.

[1:34] Steven Ferezy: Yes.

[1:35] Dana Craig: We shook those tail feathers.

[1:37] Steven Ferezy: Yeah, and that Thai food was really good too.

[1:40] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[1:41] Steven Ferezy: Yeah. And then what else did we do?

[1:45] Dana Craig: Well, okay, wait. Well, we saw Tina.

[1:47] Steven Ferezy: You took me to Tina.

[1:48] Dana Craig: I took you to Tina.

[1:49] Steven Ferezy: A propos of today's episode.

[1:52] Dana Craig: Yeah, we went to Takuba and then to Teen Cuba.

[1:56] Steven Ferezy: Yeah.

[1:56] Dana Craig: We're alliterative queens.

[1:59] Steven Ferezy: Obviously.

[2:01] Dana Craig: Obviously. Yeah, so I took you to Tina because we were offered some comps at some point and I wasn't there as often as I am now at that point.

[2:12] Steven Ferezy: So I got to see it too for the first time and like understand what I'm doing, understand the bigger picture.

[2:19] Dana Craig: So that was bad.

[2:20] Steven Ferezy: We were little front row eye cats.

[2:22] Dana Craig: Yeah, and I got to see my new friend Ari Groover, who is here with us today.

[2:28] Steven Ferezy: Like do her thing.

[2:30] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[2:32] Ari Groover: Thank you for being here, my queen.

[2:34] Ari Groover: Oh, thank you for having me. You obviously know Ari from Tina, the Tina Turner musical, but we also know her from Head Over Heels with our queen Bonnie Millian.

[2:46] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[2:46] Ari Groover: And Holler If Ya Hear Me.

[2:49] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm.

[2:50] Ari Groover: Which was the Tupac musical at the Palace Center.

[2:53] Dana Craig: Amazing.

[2:55] Ari Groover: Which I have a water bottle from.

[2:57] Dana Craig: Oh, that's crazy.

[2:58] Ari Groover: Oddly.

[2:59] Dana Craig: Broadway Flea Market?

[3:00] Ari Groover: Probably.

[3:01] Dana Craig: Okay, that's a bit.

[3:03] Ari Groover: I don't even have a water bottle from them.

[3:05] Dana Craig: It was in some bag.

[3:07] Ari Groover: Yeah.

[3:09] Dana Craig: How you doing, Ari?

[3:10] Ari Groover: I'm good. I'm hanging in there.

[3:13] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[3:14] Ari Groover: Chilling. I'm excited. I'm gonna go see Funny Girl today.

[3:19] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[3:20] Ari Groover: So I could go see my other two, you know, Broadway beauties, Jessica Prescott and Amber Ardelino, which I did Head Over Heels with.

[3:30] Ari Groover: Just the Prescott was my twin, so I wanted to come and support.

[3:34] Dana Craig: Oh, and John Michael.

[3:35] Ari Groover: John Michael's in it as well.

[3:36] Dana Craig: I cannot wait to hear your thoughts.

[3:39] Ari Groover: I know. I'm very curious to see what's gonna be given on the stage.

[3:44] Ari Groover: Um, but I'm very excited. You know, it's good to see Michael Mayer. The last thing I did with Michael Mayer was Little Shop of Horrors and we had such a great time.

[3:51] Ari Groover: So I know they're having a great time.

[3:54] Dana Craig: Oh man, and that show is so good.

[3:57] Ari Groover: That show is so good.

[3:59] Ari Groover: Little Shop was what I did before I came to Tina. Little Shop was that's what got my Lucille Lortel nominee.

[4:07] Ari Groover: I didn't even know what that was when I found out until somebody was like, "Yeah, girl, that's a big deal."

[4:13] Dana Craig: Yes.

[4:13] Ari Groover: I didn't know that at all.

[4:15] Dana Craig: Yeah, she's cute.

[4:17] Ari Groover: She's cute. She's a cute little, you know, cute little thing for playing the urchin. It was fun. It was a fun show.

[4:24] Dana Craig: What did your—'cause I don't know any of this about you. I just know like the work you—what was your road to Broadway? What did that look like? Was that the childhood dream?

[4:36] Ari Groover: Like New York?

[4:37] Dana Craig: Yes, sir. You were born where?

[4:40] Ari Groover: 'Cause you were also a DJ.

[4:42] Ari Groover: Yes. I am. I was—I did not see this as the dream. Absolutely not. I always used to think that Broadway was too white and I was too different to be on there.

[4:54] Ari Groover: If I'm being completely honest, but I was born in Savannah, Georgia, um, Georgia Peach, and then grew up in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia. Um, and I actually went to school. Like I did musical theater and performing arts in school, went to performing arts high school for dance and acting, not necessarily musical theater, and I also went for illustration.

[5:18] Ari Groover: I really wanted to be into art and wanted to be a sequential artist for like storyboard animations, um, comic books because I was a comic book nerd, so I didn't really see myself being a Broadway performer.

[5:36] Ari Groover: I actually saw myself either doing art for companies or either being a backup dancer behind some famous singer. That's what I thought I was gonna be, and the higher power said absolutely not. You have no clue.

[5:50] Steven Ferezy: Well, I'm gonna fight back on that because we can see you.

[5:54] Ari Groover: We're all virtual listeners.

[5:56] Ari Groover: Yes, I can see—is this your apartment?

[5:59] Ari Groover: Yeah, just—no.

[6:01] Ari Groover: Okay, I'm in Jersey City right now.

[6:03] Steven Ferezy: Okay, so you have some banging art on your wall and also on your earlobes.

[6:10] Ari Groover: Oh, yeah. I can tell you are an artiste and do not hide that light under a bush alone, no.

[6:17] Ari Groover: Yeah, I should appreciate it more. I mean, that is what that was one of my first loves. But yeah, I never thought I would have been on musicals and it would have been here, but I'm here.

[6:29] Dana Craig: Yay. What was your first theater experience? What kind of gave you that juice?

[6:36] Ari Groover: Um, the first one that I saw was my mom used to teach at Savannah State, and she did—they ended up doing The Wiz, and I love, love, love The Wiz. I would play the album all the time. We would watch the movie all the time.

[6:57] Ari Groover: And the first time I really got to see like an actual show on tour, which is all crazy, y'all, it was Cats. It was really—it was Cats, and I was like, "Oh my god, these people are cats," and that's so dope as corny as it sounds. Cats was like one of the first professional shows I ever saw—ever seen, uh, whatever the past tense is for it—that I saw that I was just enamored with the fact that these people were being cats and my little mind went running rampant with all of the things that I can transformation.

[7:05] Ari Groover: Yes, like you can't unsee that.

[7:05] Ari Groover: No, you cannot. Be scared, and I—it was a bunch of the little kids that were petrified, and I wanted to be up there on stage looking at old—what's his name? Dude Romney—like how you sit so still? I always think about that on TV when like somebody's dead. I'm like, how do you play dead for so long? How do you breathe that shallowly? How do you do that? You don't take a breath of air at one point in time? I count my residual checks.

[7:05] Ari Groover: I know that's right. That's how I would do it over the fence, jump in the fences. You've lost your damn mind.

[8:25] Steven Ferezy: I know this is called Punchy Punchy Brewster over here. So from Savannah, Georgia to New York City.

[8:25] Ari Groover: Yeah, Savannah, Atlanta, then New York City. What brought you to New York?

[8:25] Ari Groover: What brought me to New York was the first show that I ever did in New York City, which was Bear the Musical off-Broadway.

[8:51] Ari Groover: Yeah.

[8:52] Ari Groover: And it was the revival. I don't know if—what would you say? Revival?

[8:55] Steven Ferezy: Well, I guess you could say that.

[8:56] Ari Groover: It was a new version that we did at New World Stages. And the wonderful Stafford Arima directed this. He's also the person that directed Allegiance, uh, for people who may not know who he is.

[9:11] Ari Groover: Um, and then I got here, had no clue. I was like, I never thought that I would have been in New York being some character dancing with Travis Wall—Travis Wall teaching me choreography and then doing the craziness stuff of theater that we do.

[9:31] Ari Groover: And that's what got me here. And that was like in 2012. So that's almost ten years ago, actually.

[9:38] Steven Ferezy: I had no idea that it was just the—you booked a gag that took you here and here you stayed.

[9:44] Ari Groover: And I stayed. Uh, it was just—it was no point in me going back to Atlanta because at that point in time there was just nothing there for me to sort of go back to.

[9:55] Ari Groover: Um, so I just thought maybe I'll just take my chances here in New York and see what happens.

[10:01] Ari Groover: And you know, I had little jobs, survival jobs here and there. My favorite one was working at the Museum of Sex, y'all. That was a very interesting job.

[10:10] Steven Ferezy: What was your, if you'll pardon the pun, position there?

[10:13] Ari Groover: My position, if it was up to me, it would be working with all the doggies—now playing. Uh, my position, I was actually like a sales clerk at the store, and it was interesting because we had to learn a lot about the toys.

[10:30] Ari Groover: So different companies would come in and they would give us some of the toys for free to sample, try out, and people would ask, you know, "How do you feel about this toy? I'm looking for something for my wife, or I'm looking for something for my husband, I'm looking for something for my partner. What would you suggest?"

[10:45] Ari Groover: Um, it took a lot of actually educating myself on one, what I liked, um, in order to like, you know, tell others what is the greatest, you know, toy. Not only that, you have the museum, but a lot of people would also come there for certain events that they would have there.

[11:03] Ari Groover: Um, well, you know, sometimes they would teach people like a beginner's course on, you know, uh, bondage, you know, SM. And, you know, it was actually very safe for the most part.

[11:18] Ari Groover: You know, you get some of your crazies that think, "Oh, you're a prostitute," and you're like, "No, that's not how this works." Um, also sex workers, let them have their—they need money too. Um, but it was a very educational environment for the most part that I actually had fun.

[11:35] Ari Groover: I was like, "Oh, this is kind of cool." You got the companies that are really wanting to know your input, you know, what you think about these toys. Uh, can we try it out for, you know, this amount of time? Um, this is the thing that's in season. This is the ones that the couples really like. It was pretty interesting.

[11:52] Ari Groover: Um, a lot of information that was shared, and I was just like, "Oh, that's—I want all that, but okay." But it was great.

[12:04] Ari Groover: Now I know. But it was great, and then from there, in the meantime, we went did the survival jobs, and then ended up booking Holler If Ya Hear Me, the workshop, which was like right before we went on Broadway.

[12:16] Ari Groover: And the workshop was very special because that's how I got to meet my dear friend, you know, God rest his soul, Chadwick Boseman, because he was the lead before um Saul Williams took over, and he was such a light and a leader.

[12:16] Ari Groover: And you know, it was so funny because we were just seeing his career sort of take off while doing this um sort of workshop and you know everybody knew who he was. Everybody was like, "Oh, you're 42, you're Jackie Robinson," because that's what everybody could just pinpoint from then and there, and he was going to go do James Brown after that.

[12:16] Ari Groover: And then along with that, finding out that he was going in for Black Panther and all this stuff, so he was taking off. But it was a good, you know, experience to—I think everybody now knowing what we know now and now seeing the things that have happened, we understood that that experience was really to all fellowship as a family first before we even went to Broadway and sort of the fellowship him because he was really, really a good guy.

[13:23] Ari Groover: Um was really about giving back so that was my first interaction with Holler If Ya Hear Me and then, you know, trying to figure out if we were gonna make it on Broadway and then they decided to put us up at the Palace, which was one of the biggest theaters of all time.

[13:41] Ari Groover: And I said currently hovering, hovering in the air. Don't know what's going on. She's just floating. I'm cool with that. I'm cool, cool. And you know, it was an experience where we had a lot of Broadway first. Um, like one of my good friends Shikinah Calicango, who was in Paradise Square now, who would do Slave Play. I don't think that was her first Broadway show, but it was like a couple of us, and it was a pretty predominantly Black show. So we had a lot of first young Black people on this stage for the first time. Um, you know, a Joshua Boone, who's like also doing things. Jahi Kears was doing things. Everybody is doing like magnificent stuff from that show, and I didn't realize that that Tupac musical was a catalyst for a lot of things that are sort of happening now.

Um, which, you know, it kind of sucks because we were kind of, you know, put on the back burner for a lot of things, but I think it was very imperative for people, especially people of color, especially Black people, to see a whole bunch of Black people on stage talking about something that is real and at that time in 2014 was ahead of its time. Um, if it would have come like maybe 2016 with all of, you know, the police brutality, you know, like Eric Garner, um, uh, all of these young men that were sort of being killed by police, um, and then the prison systems and knowing all the information that we know now, I think it would have been very impactful, but it still did its justice. It's just it was ahead of its time, that's what I say. But it was one of the greatest experiences that honestly I've ever had for my first Broadway show.

[15:41] Steven Ferezy: Yeah, I betcha. Did you ever tour?

[15:47] Ari Groover: No, I've done out of towns, but I've never toured at all. Um, I would say sometimes I would be like, oh, would I want to tour it? But I feel like touring is now different, being that, you know, producers wanna be, you know, a little bit reserved about their money, so the contracts are not the greatest, I think. Um, and I don't even want to say that because I think it depends on people's predicaments, and I think a tour is a wonderful thing to do. You have experience and all that stuff, but I think now I'm kind of like for myself and what I'm trying to go through, a tour would have to be beneficial for me in terms of like money. You know what I mean?

[16:27] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[16:27] Ari Groover: Absolutely.

[16:35] Steven Ferezy: Unless the money was great.

[16:37] Dana Craig: Right, you know, part you've always wanted to play, person you've always wanted to work with, right? Text too good to say no.

[16:41] Ari Groover: Right.

[16:44] Steven Ferezy: Yeah.

[16:45] Ari Groover: But I've never tried to tour, though. If you can get to, oh, you're doing great.

[16:50] Steven Ferezy: Yep.

[16:51] Ari Groover: But I've never toured. Maybe, maybe one day. It's never, you know, I'd never say never. It would be a cool way to see the country. I love, you know, I have friends who mostly tour. Like, they hate being in New York 'cause it means they're between jobs.

[17:03] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[17:04] Ari Groover: Um, they've seen every tour, every theater everywhere.

[17:08] Steven Ferezy: Yeah, that is true.

[17:09] Ari Groover: The theater nerd in me is so jealous of that.

[17:14] Dana Craig: Been in every single sacred house.

[17:18] Ari Groover: Yeah.

[17:19] Dana Craig: Um, that's amazing.

[17:21] Ari Groover: Isn't it? It's so dope. But I haven't had that experience yet. Maybe one day. Like old vaudevillian in you, Steven.

[17:28] Steven Ferezy: Right?

[17:29] Ari Groover: Oh, bus and truck.

[17:31] Steven Ferezy: Yeah.

[17:34] Ari Groover: Got your can of grease paint and the follow spot.

[17:38] Steven Ferezy: That's all I need.

[17:39] Ari Groover: Pretzels and beer.

[17:40] Steven Ferezy: Pretzels and beer.

[17:41] Ari Groover: Pretzels and beer. That's it.

[17:42] Steven Ferezy: That'll take you far.

[17:43] Ari Groover: Or, or I guess in your case, Cheez-Its. I do love some Cheez-Its.

[17:48] Steven Ferezy: I would test some Cheez-Its up.

[17:51] Ari Groover: There's, and Steven knows, because I'm like, I'll have my cheeses and like I'll have my robe, and then I forget that I got the cheese-it wrappers, like the bag in my robe, and I forget to throw it in the trash. And Steven's probably digging it and be like, who had already had Cheez-Its?

[18:07] Steven Ferezy: And it's the white cheddar.

[18:09] Ari Groover: Yes.

[18:10] Ari Groover: The best ones. My new favorite question is if you're going on a road trip and you stop at a gas station, it's not attached to a Taco Bell, like it's just a gas station. You can get three things. What are they?

[18:21] Dana Craig: Oh my god, this is honor.

[18:24] Ari Groover: Okay. So I got to have like the cheese, the Cheetos Puffs. I got a lot of Cheetos Puffs. Like, it's amazing. The Southern girl in me will have some sunflower seeds because I would spit them out the window. Yeah, we would just tear up sunflower seeds to the point where our mouths are like, you really need to have some water, friend. I need you to drink. And this is gonna sell it depends on where I go, though, because not a lot of people are gonna have this. This is a very Southern thing, too. Boiled peanuts.

[19:04] Dana Craig: Do go on.

[19:05] Ari Groover: Boiled peanuts is, you know, you got these peanuts in a can, or the peanuts have been soaked in some sort of, I don't know, and they're salty, and sometimes they can be spicy too, depending on if you want a Cajun version of it or not. And so you do them, you serve them while they're hot. And so instead of like peanuts that you roast, they're just peanuts that you boil, and you may put, you know, salt. Some people like put vinegar, some people like to do something in it and let it sit there, and you eat them when they're hot, and it's so good. Sometimes you put like cayenne pepper, you know, you can put some paprika. Now I don't know, some people are different about what they do and put on their boiled peanuts.

But I said this is a very Southern thing. This is what I'm like, yeah. This is where the Southern girl comes in, because I'm like, if you know you from some really like back alleywoods town, they would know exactly what I'm talking about. Because they would serve them at the like the convenience store where you could just go, you know, like some now some bodegas have 'em. Like, you know, you can find them like it's, yeah, boiled peanuts used to be my jam.

[20:11] Dana Craig: That sounds so delicious.

[20:15] Ari Groover: Hot and salty.

[20:16] Dana Craig: Hot and hot and salty.

[20:18] Ari Groover: All I need. That's my go-to. I don't know what my third one would be. I would definitely need a 64-ounce diet peach Snapple. No question.

[20:27] Dana Craig: Absolutely.

[20:29] Ari Groover: I don't know why I didn't say that. I have that one. I'm thinking some corn nuts for salty and crunchy.

[20:36] Dana Craig: Okay, okay.

[20:37] Ari Groover: And then I want something sweet to balance it to some sort of, and between like the sour gummy or the Werther's Original soft chew.

[20:47] Dana Craig: Oh, for the decadent.

[20:53] Ari Groover: I would, I'm always a Werther's Original.

[20:55] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[20:56] Ari Groover: Yeah.

[20:57] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[20:58] Ari Groover: So good. I don't know. I feel like I wanted, I want a little sour. I want a little cake.

[21:03] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[21:04] Ari Groover: Well, it's hard.

[21:05] Dana Craig: Yeah.

[21:06] Ari Groover: It's not gonna annoy somebody in the middle. And you could feel it right in the back of your tongue.

[21:11] Dana Craig: Oh my gosh, yes.

[21:12] Ari Groover: Oh.

[21:13] Ari Groover: As I just feel it now. Damn it. I can feel it. Going to the dentist to get my teeth clean and my dentist is like, great choice, sorry.

[21:23] Dana Craig: Yeah, great one.

[21:25] Ari Groover: Um, we have to talk about your recent appearance in the press.

[21:33] Dana Craig: Oh my god.

[21:34] Ari Groover: You've been all over these pages.

[21:39] Dana Craig: It's crazy.

[21:41] Ari Groover: It's crazy. Because during our mega mix, your wig flew off.

[21:46] Dana Craig: Absolutely.

[21:48] Ari Groover: How far did it fly?

[21:50] Dana Craig: Off.

[21:51] Ari Groover: It just fell off the floor. To the point where I said, I need to pick it up and get it out my way. Cause at this point I was over the show at that point. There was a lot of it. It was a bit of a gremlin show for a lot of people. That show was off balance. Very off balance.

[22:13] Dana Craig: Interesting.

[22:14] Ari Groover: And I said this to you that night. And I said this to you that night. When and Julia Murney taught us this on this podcast. When you are a leading lady, there is kind of this unspoken responsibility that you have to lead the company.

[22:32] Dana Craig: Yes.

[22:32] Ari Groover: So you're not just doing your part, you're not just in your track. Like everyone in the building is now taking their cues from you.

[22:38] Dana Craig: Yep.

[22:39] Ari Groover: So if you start to get a little flappy, everyone else is gonna start to feel a little flappy.

[22:45] Dana Craig: Mm-hmm.

[22:46] Ari Groover: And it is the burden that you bear. And sorry about it. And also, congratulations, they trust you to do it. And you did it. All of that to say that show happened because you remained cool as a cucumber. You let it roll off your back like a duck.

[23:07] Dana Craig: And you went on that stage and you quacked.

[23:09] Ari Groover: I surely did. And then the wig falling off was just the cherry on top.

[23:16] Dana Craig: It was.

[23:17] Ari Groover: I was like, oh my gosh, you gotta be kidding me. Peter Ghost said just one more. Just one more. There's some ghosts at the Lunt-Fontanne. They are really comedians because they really like to pick and choose who they're gonna mess with.

[23:29] Dana Craig: They're friendly ghosts.

[23:30] Ari Groover: They're friendly girls. They're Casper's, but they do like to shake things up every now and then.

[23:37] Dana Craig: It's still their house.

[23:38] Ari Groover: Yeah, still their house. Um, I had a front row seat to all of this. So I'm stage right. We like to, we all know the mega mix choreo backstage, so we all like to, you know, do it from time to time and give the girls on stage a little extra energy.

[23:53] Dana Craig: Yes.

[23:54] Ari Groover: That extra ten minutes after you've bowed is hard.

[23:58] Dana Craig: It's hard after doing a show in a song for three hours.

[24:01] Ari Groover: Yeah. And what songs are in the mega mix? Like, put us in the room if we have not seen it.

[24:06] Ari Groover: So if you haven't seen it. I don't wanna, I don't know if I can give it away. Maybe you can't.

[24:11] Dana Craig: Let's say it's Tina Turner's biggest hits.

[24:14] Ari Groover: It is Tina Turner's. Well, people on a surprise in the other one, because there's video of your wig flying off.

[24:19] Dana Craig: Yeah, it's probably to be expected.

[24:22] Ari Groover: Okay, we'll add that to our Instagrams. The other ones for the Tina people, I don't want to ruin because they really love that song. So I'm like, you know, it's, uh, I don't want to ruin it. But, and it's, and this the funny thing is, is that in Tina, I normally play Tina's sister. So I play the opposite of Tina in almost everything that she does. And so that night I was playing Tina, where I have to switch where I'm like, no girl, now you're on the opposite side of what you do. And it was one of those things where like the sound was not working.

[24:56] Dana Craig: Right.

[24:56] Ari Groover: So nobody, our musicians couldn't hear each other out of their ear. Right. Sheldon had to play drums. Some of them had to play the drums. Our drum, our thing is with that's cool about Tina is that we actually have some musicians that aren't like actually in the show. They are in the scenes. They run up from their position from backstage where they normally set up to play with the band, and then sometimes they have a drum set, an electronic drum kit on stage, and then our bass player, full costume, full wig, guitar player would have a full wig, full costume, all of this stuff. Um, and that day, none of the musicians could hear anything out of their ear. Our drummer was sitting next to our conductor trying to speak and give him the metronome for each song.

So the monitors weren't working. We couldn't hear each other, they couldn't hear me, I couldn't hear them, the musicians couldn't hear each other. That was our show. Our show started 20 minutes late for that already. And so the entire first act, I said, great, I can't hear nothing. So I'm looking at these monitors with our MD Alvin Hodge, who did a wonderful job trying to figure out am I on the right beat, sir? Because I can't hear nothing, everything is mono on stage. Our wonderful swinger, our wonderful swing Sheldon, Sheldon Henry, had to come in, get dressed to be the drummer because it looks weird. The first scene, the club Manhattan, we didn't have a drummer or a bass player. Big drum kit center stage. And nobody's playing drums. All I know is Nickershaw Burroughs, who plays Ike, turns around to cue the band to stop, and there was no band there to be found.

[26:48] Ari Groover: And what?

[26:50] Ari Groover: I said, Well, what is going on?

[26:52] Ari Groover: So Shelly, we call him Keisha, because that's just the name we've given.

[26:57] Ari Groover: It's a long story.

[26:58] Ari Groover: So Shelly, aka Keisha, has to come in, get the dress.

[27:03] Ari Groover: Got his Stephen has his clothes.

[27:05] Ari Groover: To be Rocky the drummer.

[27:10] Ari Groover: And also the drum kit we thought was turned off actually wasn't turned off.

[27:17] Ari Groover: So he starts playing and it starts playing things.

[27:19] Ari Groover: And he's like, Oh, so I okay, I gotta, I gotta, I gotta really mind this because this thing is doing its own thing.

[27:27] Ari Groover: This is hot.

[27:28] Ari Groover: And so that entire show, Shelly had to go and be Rocky the drummer on stage.

[27:36] Ari Groover: Trying to play these drums.

[27:38] Ari Groover: Just, you know, and Shelly said, I don't I don't play the drums, but we're gonna make it work.

[27:43] Ari Groover: Broadway.

[27:44] Ari Groover: Broadway.

[27:45] Ari Groover: And so that was that was the entire show.

[27:47] Ari Groover: I was having there was something wrong with my costumes, my magnets for one of them.

[27:52] Ari Groover: I think the way they were either washed or the way it was sewn in for one dress was just like not working.

[27:59] Ari Groover: And there's this the if you see Tina, you know y'all have seen it for those who are listening who have not.

[28:04] Ari Groover: Tina does not leave the stage.

[28:07] Ari Groover: She only leaves the stage for a 30 second change.

[28:11] Ari Groover: And if you don't make that 30 second change, well, you are just, you know, out of luck.

[28:17] Ari Groover: Because you don't have no time.

[28:18] Ari Groover: You're trying to drink water.

[28:19] Ari Groover: You're trying to get your new wig on.

[28:20] Ari Groover: You're trying to dip put on your shoes.

[28:21] Ari Groover: You're trying to put on this fabulous dress.

[28:23] Ari Groover: Um, all with under 20 to 30 seconds, so that you can make it on stage.

[28:29] Ari Groover: With about two dressers and a hair person.

[28:31] Ari Groover: With about two dressers and a hair person at least.

[28:34] Ari Groover: And you're on stage the entire time that the fact that they even dress you on stage, the ensemble dresses you on stage.

[28:41] Ari Groover: You're trying to get some drink of water.

[28:43] Ari Groover: You speak throughout the entire show.

[28:44] Ari Groover: You're singing throughout like 27 songs throughout the entire show.

[28:48] Ari Groover: And some of my costumes weren't working.

[28:52] Ari Groover: Like there was one time I missed one cue and came out late because that beautiful dress in Disco Inferno, Steven, you remember, got so tangled and the zipper just wasn't working the way that it was supposed to, that I'm just in here like, oh well, we'll see.

[29:08] Ari Groover: If somebody will step up and be the lead, please.

[29:11] Ari Groover: Somebody take over.

[29:12] Ari Groover: Better be good to me.

[29:13] Ari Groover: Better be good.

[29:15] Ari Groover: Better be good to me.

[29:17] Ari Groover: And the ghost at the Linfontaine said, Absolutely not.

[29:22] Ari Groover: So it was that's that was just like that was the whole gist of the show.

[29:29] Ari Groover: And we were already coming off with that energy.

[29:30] Ari Groover: And I was like, instead of being mad about it, I was just like, Alright, well, cool.

[29:34] Ari Groover: Next one, we'll we'll get it next time.

[29:36] Ari Groover: Because you just don't have time.

[29:37] Ari Groover: You don't have time to be flustered.

[29:38] Ari Groover: Because if you're flustered, it's gonna ruin your whole show.

[29:41] Ari Groover: It's like you don't have time.

[29:43] Ari Groover: So you get through it, and you know, you're like, okay, I made it through the show.

[29:48] Ari Groover: Alright, let's let's do this thing.

[29:50] Ari Groover: Let's close this baby out.

[29:51] Ari Groover: We're already 20 minutes behind, and you know that we don't want the people to get over time.

[29:54] Ari Groover: It's 11 15.

[29:55] Ari Groover: It's 11 15.

[29:57] Ari Groover: So the people are already getting getting overtime, right?

[30:00] Ari Groover: And do this.

[30:02] Ari Groover: Sing the first song in the mega mix.

[30:05] Ari Groover: Get to Proud Mary.

[30:08] Ari Groover: Everybody's like, yeah, do it again.

[30:11] Ari Groover: And we're like, oh, yay for y'all.

[30:13] Ari Groover: Because we love you.

[30:15] Ari Groover: One more time.

[30:16] Ari Groover: And we get in it, and we get into the, you know, her signature moves, and all I know is the wig falls down.

[30:25] Ari Groover: And I was so mad to the point that I said, you know what?

[30:28] Ari Groover: I get the wig.

[30:29] Ari Groover: I scoop it up, throw it stage right, and then get right back on beat.

[30:34] Ari Groover: Because I said, I gotta go home.

[30:40] Ari Groover: I have to go home.

[30:41] Ari Groover: We're going to go home.

[30:43] Ari Groover: Whatever it takes.

[30:44] Ari Groover: Whatever it takes, we're going to go home.

[30:47] Ari Groover: And so everybody's screaming while they're seeing my wig cap and the magnet that is on my head and doing the choreography.

[30:55] Ari Groover: But then at some point there's a guitar solo within Proud Mary that gives me enough time to go off stage and then put my wig back on.

[31:02] Ari Groover: And I was like, see y'all theater magic.

[31:03] Ari Groover: Voila.

[31:05] Ari Groover: Veterinarian isn't doing this, honeys.

[31:08] Ari Groover: That guitar solo is what, eight bars?

[31:10] Ari Groover: Maybe sixteen.

[31:12] Ari Groover: Maybe sixteen.

[31:13] Ari Groover: Like maybe.

[31:14] Ari Groover: It could be about a good eight, because it's so quick.

[31:17] Ari Groover: She wants to serve and Chris Tony, our care supervisor, is like pulling pins out of her wrist like a bat out of hell.

[31:26] Ari Groover: And just pinning this thing back.

[31:28] Ari Groover: And Ari's like, I'm good.

[31:30] Ari Groover: I'm good.

[31:31] Ari Groover: And everyone's just like, Where how can I help?

[31:34] Ari Groover: And everyone knew just to not get too close, let them do it.

[31:38] Ari Groover: And she walked right back out on that stage.

[31:41] Ari Groover: She was like, There you go.

[31:43] Ari Groover: That's it.

[31:45] Ari Groover: What's your next question?

[31:47] Ari Groover: When Guardian Leviosa, y'all, this is Harry Potter who Any acting teacher will tell you your greatest acting moments, your most inspired moments will come when you are over it.

[32:00] Ari Groover: When you are tired, then do your scene.

[32:05] Ari Groover: Oh my gosh.

[32:06] Ari Groover: You will be amazing.

[32:08] Ari Groover: And she's not wrong.

[32:10] Ari Groover: Because the way I've picked up that wig, and I say, you know what?

[32:14] Ari Groover: I've had it up to here.

[32:16] Ari Groover: Ghost of the Lunt Fontaine.

[32:18] Ari Groover: Glenn was practically on his knees, just like trying to grab it off the stage.

[32:23] Ari Groover: Without getting kicked by Katie Webb.

[32:26] Ari Groover: Katie Weber.

[32:28] Ari Groover: Katie Weber was like, wait, your wig fell off.

[32:31] Ari Groover: So I have a question regarding the wig.

[32:35] Ari Groover: Do you have a protocol of what happens if it does happen?

[32:39] Ari Groover: Well, I betcha they probably will now.

[32:41] Ari Groover: Wait, wait.

[32:43] Ari Groover: Um, there was no protocol.

[32:46] Ari Groover: I think it and to be honest, I don't know if that could have happened to anybody else that night.

[32:51] Ari Groover: I don't know what anybody else would have done.

[32:53] Ari Groover: I would assume that most of them would have gone off because I I think everybody's professional and wonderful at Tina that they just have that, you know, instinct to do it.

[33:02] Ari Groover: But I don't know really.

[33:05] Ari Groover: Yeah, I don't know how they would have felt afterwards.

[33:09] Ari Groover: Um, so I was like, there might have been a reason why it sort of happened to me because uh most people are like, yeah, Ari, you know, she gets a lot of the, you know, if anything happens, she's normally good with going on, unless if it was like something that somebody was in danger.

[33:26] Ari Groover: Um, normally I will continue to go on and just be cautious about it, but I don't know what people would have done, honestly, if that would have happened to them.

[33:36] Ari Groover: I don't know if they would have wanted response.

[33:39] Ari Groover: It wasn't I just was like, girl, we fighting because we gotta go.

[33:43] Ari Groover: Mm-hmm.

[33:43] Ari Groover: Mm-hmm.

[33:44] Ari Groover: You gotta go.

[33:45] Ari Groover: Did the math real quick that okay, it's mega mix, nobody's in danger.

[33:49] Ari Groover: There's no more sets moving, there's no entrances, there's nothing.

[33:54] Ari Groover: We've bowed.

[33:54] Ari Groover: This is extra.

[33:55] Ari Groover: This is extra.

[33:56] Ari Groover: So make sure.

[33:57] Ari Groover: I'm gonna make it extra.

[34:00] Ari Groover: And we should what press picked it up?

[34:03] Ari Groover: I mean, you were everywhere.

[34:04] Ari Groover: People magazine.

[34:07] Ari Groover: Wendy Williams.

[34:08] Ari Groover: It was like it started with People Magazine, and then it just went on from here, and then it was on Good Morning America, then it was on Wendy Williams, then it was on The Talk, and then somebody said it was on Access Daily with Mario Lopez being like, Oh, that was so great.

[34:24] Ari Groover: And I was just like, I'm sorry, what is going on?

[34:27] Ari Groover: Then it was on uh Huffington Post, then B E T.

[34:32] Ari Groover: You know you B E T is a black person.

[34:34] Ari Groover: You're like, oh, I done made it.

[34:36] Ari Groover: Um like Buzzfeed, a whole bunch of other stuff where I was just like, How did this get this far?

[34:45] Ari Groover: Is that a win?

[34:48] Ari Groover: I guess I guess you could call it that.

[34:52] Ari Groover: You know, or it's my my little cousin, she liked to say blessing in these skies because she thinks it's in the sky.

[34:57] Ari Groover: And I was just like, Oh, that's so cute, girl.

[35:04] Ari Groover: That's what she says.

[35:05] Ari Groover: She's not wrong.

[35:07] Ari Groover: She's not wrong.

[35:07] Ari Groover: She's not wrong.

[35:08] Ari Groover: She's not wrong.

[35:09] Ari Groover: So I I assume so, I guess.

[35:11] Ari Groover: I love what Sherry Shepherd said.

[35:13] Ari Groover: Uh, you know, as a Broadway vet herself.

[35:16] Ari Groover: Okay.

[35:16] Ari Groover: From Cinderella.

[35:18] Ari Groover: Um, she was like, anybody who's worn a wig, you know when it's about to fall off.

[35:24] Ari Groover: Because it slides first.

[35:26] Ari Groover: It never just falls off.

[35:27] Ari Groover: It never just flies.

[35:28] Ari Groover: It slides first.

[35:30] Ari Groover: So you have a warning.

[35:31] Ari Groover: You there's nothing you can do.

[35:34] Ari Groover: Because you have a mic in it.

[35:36] Ari Groover: You have other things tied up in it.

[35:37] Ari Groover: You can't just yank it.

[35:39] Ari Groover: Right.

[35:40] Ari Groover: And you're you're you're putting your head, you know, you're doing a move where your head is flying down first.

[35:46] Ari Groover: Yeah.

[35:46] Ari Groover: And I felt that slide and I said, Well sliding on the river.

[35:53] Ari Groover: Oh, sliding on the river.

[35:54] Ari Groover: This is my demise as Tina, and I don't know what is about to happen after this.

[35:59] Ari Groover: By that third one, I say, Oh yeah, she's off.

[36:02] Ari Groover: Well, honestly, at the end of the day, it's what would Tina do?

[36:04] Ari Groover: And you did what Tina would do.

[36:07] Ari Groover: Thank you.

[36:07] Ari Groover: That's it.

[36:08] Ari Groover: Thank you.

[36:08] Ari Groover: A lot of people playing Tina.

[36:10] Ari Groover: Some people would beg to differ.

[36:11] Ari Groover: They would be like, Tina would never be caught with that.

[36:13] Ari Groover: I said, How how first of all, how many people here have seen Tina in their lifetime perform?

[36:19] Ari Groover: So a lot of them were younger people, because I was just like, Y'all have never seen Tina in her lifetime perform.

[36:24] Ari Groover: You don't know what she's done.

[36:26] Ari Groover: Um, but also they're like, you know, drag queens keep their wigs on.

[36:30] Ari Groover: I said, No, I've seen plenty of shows where drag queens have danced their wigs off and they get all of the dollars in the world.

[36:37] Ari Groover: Yeah, that's right.

[36:37] Ari Groover: That's me.

[36:38] Ari Groover: You they pass that wig around like an offering back to the case.

[36:41] Ari Groover: Okay.

[36:42] Ari Groover: So I was just like, you know, a lot of people like, oh, it wouldn't be me.

[36:42] Ari Groover: It wouldn't be me because my team would know better.

[36:47] Ari Groover: I'm like, no, we had a great team.

[36:49] Ari Groover: It's just sometimes sometimes things do happen.

[36:52] Ari Groover: Like when you think your wig, you know, is secure to the best of its abilities.

[36:56] Ari Groover: I might dance and a you know, clip may fly off, or pin may fly off, and there's you know, Titanic thought it had a whole bunch of dingies, it didn't, and it did.

[37:06] Ari Groover: And look what happened.

[37:08] Ari Groover: You know.

[37:09] Ari Groover: Do you have other memorable on stage oopsie doopsie whoopsies?

[37:15] Ari Groover: That um do they measure up to this one?

[37:18] Ari Groover: I don't know if they measure up to this one, but there was one time it was like a it was a trickle effect, and I think it was one time when I was playing one of the eye cats, and we were doing hire, and something had happened, and all I know is one person that did the choreography wrong, so I thought I was doing the choreography wrong.

[37:39] Ari Groover: So then the other girls thought they were doing the choreography wrong, and we were all doing different things.

[37:44] Ari Groover: And we were like, what is happening?

[37:46] Ari Groover: So it ended up being four solos, and then when we got to the the chorus, we were all packed to where it was.

[37:51] Ari Groover: But we were like, did I do this?

[37:53] Ari Groover: She said, No, it was because of me because she did I did this, then she did this, and then y'all thought y'all were all wrong.

[37:58] Ari Groover: So we just we were just wrong.

[38:01] Ari Groover: I could picture y'all's faces though.

[38:03] Ari Groover: Oh my god.

[38:05] Ari Groover: Selling it.

[38:05] Ari Groover: We were selling it with your team, trying to sell it, and we were like, Y'all know we wrong, right?

[38:11] Ari Groover: It's okay.

[38:12] Ari Groover: It's fine.

[38:13] Ari Groover: It's fine, it's fine.

[38:14] Ari Groover: It's always like the stuff with the eye cats.

[38:17] Ari Groover: Um that is hilarious to me.

[38:19] Ari Groover: Oh no, there is one time playing Aline, which is Tina's sister, where I was trying to grab the phone.

[38:28] Ari Groover: There's this there's a scene where I'm having a poem call with with Tina, and I got an old school, you know, like phone that you hold with the line land line, and you gotta turn the the things the rotary thing.

[38:40] Ari Groover: Yeah, the rotary phone.

[38:41] Ari Groover: I had a rotary phone, and trying to hold it in the back where you can hold it.

[38:46] Ari Groover: And I think Matthew had gave it to me and it kind of slipped, and I caught it, but then Tina was saying something, and I had the phone here, and I said, I'm sorry, girl, I can just drop the phone.

[38:58] Ari Groover: What you say now?

[39:02] Ari Groover: And everybody died because again, the ghost at the Lafontaine love to pick at me because they want to see what I will do.

[39:16] Ari Groover: And when that phone dropped, and Tina had said something, and I said, Girl, I'm sorry, I almost dropped this phone because of your son.

[39:23] Ari Groover: What did you say now?

[39:24] Ari Groover: Huh.

[39:26] Ari Groover: And I said, you know what?

[39:28] Ari Groover: Ari, you might be alright in this life.

[39:30] Ari Groover: Trust the character.

[39:31] Ari Groover: Trust the character.

[39:33] Ari Groover: The character.

[39:33] Ari Groover: Because if it's somebody that can improv, it's gonna be me.

[39:36] Ari Groover: And you can make little shop of horrors for that.

[39:39] Ari Groover: I have not heard that story.

[39:40] Ari Groover: That is hilarious.

[39:43] Ari Groover: That might have been right before you got there, Steven.

[39:45] Ari Groover: Or it might have been like you were working there, but you weren't doing as many days as you're doing.

[39:49] Ari Groover: I wasn't paying attention to anybody, that's for sure.

[39:52] Ari Groover: Glenn was like, When you dropped that phone and you picked it up, and then you said what you said, I almost lost it.

[39:59] Ari Groover: I said I almost did too.

[40:01] Ari Groover: That phone could have hit somebody in the head.

[40:04] Ari Groover: You must started a whole comedy set.

[40:06] Ari Groover: Like, who's here?

[40:07] Ari Groover: How we doing Cincinnati?

[40:09] Ari Groover: Yes.

[40:10] Ari Groover: Eileen is the one to do it.

[40:11] Ari Groover: She's a little bit more.

[40:12] Dana Craig: She's in on a date.

[40:13] Ari Groover: Who's here on a date?

[40:14] Dana Craig: Oh my goodness.

[40:15] Ari Groover: It was that was the one time I said, you know what? Alright, I don't maybe we just need to quit, girl. Cause you just the ghosts at the La Fontaine just love to pick at you. You got to find something else.

[40:28] Dana Craig: That's brilliant. Transitioning in the interest of time. I need to know more about your DJ life. Because again, I really only know you at work life.

[40:38] Ari Groover: Yeah. We love a multi hyphen.

[40:43] Ari Groover: Yes. I you know, DJing has always kind of been something that's kind of been around my life the whole time. Well, especially I would say the music aspect of it. Being in Atlanta and I used to be I used to dance for this sort of underground group. They used to call themselves the funk lords, and they were, you know, a bunch of B boys and B girls, poppers and lockers and the old school sense of how New York used to be. When it comes to cypher, and we would always have, you know, our MC, our dancers, you know, B boy, B girl, you know, person does the graffiti, and then your DJ. And so our DJ was like, you know, just integral to the whole function and I would always be around the DJ. We would always change vinyls or you know, exchange vinyls for, you know, something and let me listen to this.

So it's always been there, but it wasn't until I got to New York City where I was just like, you know what, I'm actually in the Mecca, so let me try to, you know, do this thing. And I really got into it once Holler If Ya Hear Me closed. And I was just like, you know, maybe I should really start to get into DJing. So I ended up buying like a turntable, this equipment, this mixer, um, and the MK2 technique for all the DJs techniques who all DJs out there listening, y'all know exactly what I'm talking about. It's like the diamond, you know, turntable you're supposed to have. They don't make 'em anymore. So um, but I got started with this because I was just like I have a love for music and then I had a mentor that I met with his name is OP Miller.

He goes by OP. He's a wonderful DJ. And he used to have a collective called I Love Vinyl. It was a I love vinyl crew where they would go out every Friday or Saturday night. I can't remember in Brooklyn and play at this club and they would play all like seventies funk and eighties funk and a whole bunch of stuff but it was all vinyl. They would, you know, have 33s or 45s, most of them 45s 'cause it was easier to carry for the people who don't know you had to put vinyl in the crates and put it in a car. You didn't have iTunes back then. It was heavy. You had to live crates. The slats. The sla exactly so they would you know they they love the nostalgia of it so they they kept that going and it's kinda like how I met my mentor, OP and he would also teach certain aspects of DJing and I was like let me learn from you and I learned a lot from him about the music and how to create the atmosphere but also the technical side of it that comes with DJing because a lot of people forget you know DJing.

You also have to be sort of a sound person, an audio engineer to your own thing or at least be able to speak the language that your audio engineer at a club would do. And because I was a woman and a lot of men will talk to you as if you don't know what you are talking about. It's like the same thing for women who are plumbers or women who are engineers or are taking something of physical, you know, you know, assets or whatever. And he taught me a lot of things. He was like, I want you to be able to learn how to play on all types of things. You have turntables, you have CDJs, you have controllers now, which are an all-in-one unit that you can take with you. And he was just like, I don't want you to, you can have a preference of what you like to play, but if they don't have it, I don't want that to hinder you from learning how to play the music because the music is always gonna come, you're gonna find a way.

And he was really good at that. And I all I know is I ended up really getting into it. And I think it's because of also being a dancer, I was really into, you know, creating an atmosphere. So I would create playlists in my room, send it to people, or I would go to certain places and we would do a snob. Like for those who are in theater, if you know what a snob is, they wouldn't only do it on Sunday nights. Or no, I'm sorry, not Sunday, Saturday nights. And it would be after a two-show day. Since we can't necessarily go to the club the next day because we have a show on Sunday, um Sunday, and sometimes it would be two shows or even one show on Sunday. But you would pay your person, the theater person at the door, some change, you know, get them a bottle, great alcohol, good selection, and you can stay in your theater in your dressing rooms and party and play music until maybe like one or two a.m. in the morning.

And it's something that I started getting into, and to be honest, the big person who really started it is my brother and my actual like business partner in my Ashley DJ collective. His name, his name is Preston Duggar, and he goes by DJ Doug he started doing this at Memphis a long time ago like in 2009 and it became something that we all kind of have done and so because of that having theater as a background and then having DJing as a background I wanted to be part of this collective and started this collective with my business partner DJ Dougs who's the same thing he was a not only a company ballet dancer but he was also a Broadway person and a DJ so we got together with a our other business partner and she's a lovely lovely woman her name is Emily McGill and she was really good at doing a lot of PR um also a lot of AR for a lot of companies she would work for Kenny Leon she's done a lot of different things with consulting and she's also a theater person who loves music we all decided to make this collective call snob and for us it's Sunday nights on Broadway because Sunday is our Friday since we're off on Mondays and we started doing these parties these monthly parties for the Broadway community or people who are artists who have always wanted to go to something that's underground and have a chance to be free drink have a good time with all without feeling like they have to be performative all the time because you know as performers we're always feeling like we have to you know get up and perform to to get through the day and this was something that we decided to do in like I want to say 2018.

Yeah, 2018 was our first year that we did it. And you know, despite the pandemic, we've still been holding on to it and have been branching out and getting bigger. So because of that, we've been DJing for opening parties. The last biggest thing we did was the opening night of not the opening night, but the reopening of Broadway with Passover. We did a blot party. That was huge. Of course. That's so cool. And so because of that we've store sort of been getting our name out there of what we can do and what we can offer and hopefully you know branch out even more with that within Broadway. Cause I think every industry sort of has that underground parties that people go to. We already know musicians have it.

Prince used to do it all the time. Um movies they sort of have it um Broadway and theater don't really have that world and it's definitely a world there for the people so we we wanted to try to create it and dabble in that and that's basically how snob became what it became and how DJing has been going for me.

[48:29] Ari Groover: So a lot of opening nights I love the mashing up of like a completely I mean it's still music but it's a different culture being mashed into something with the words right out of my mouth.

[48:43] Dana Craig: Yeah. I love it.

[48:44] Ari Groover: And that was something that we wanted to to express because I think the thing sometimes the problem that Broadway has when it comes to doing shows is that I don't think representation of culture or allowing cultures to be off you know, to be able to be authentic in a sense, where I feel like Snob allows people who may not normally go through things like this, can go come to things like this and feel safe about immersing themselves in the culture, um and also respecting the culture for what it is. So we we're always trying to show people that culture is cool. You can immerse yourself in it, you can also respect it, you can also watch from a distance and admire it, but I think it's teaching Broadway the importance of it, because sometimes you know you'll take the culture and you'll try to recreate it on stage without thanking the people or bringing the people to actually you know make it authentic. So that's something we want to do, what we've been doing, yeah.

[49:53] Dana Craig: That's huge. Such a pioneer.

[49:57] Ari Groover: Yeah, we're trying to be international sooner or later. Hello to the West End out there.

[50:03] Dana Craig: That's what we're trying to do.

[50:05] Ari Groover: It would be what would that be? Uh snow with an E at the end.

[50:09] Dana Craig: Snow, yes, Sunday night on the West.

[50:12] Ari Groover: West End. Ooh, how British with an E at the end.

[50:21] Dana Craig: Um we have one last question that we like to ask all of our guests. If you were the eighth dwarf, what would your name be?

[50:41] Ari Groover: Groovy.

[50:49] Dana Craig: Yes.

[50:53] Ari Groover: That's my first Groovy.

[50:55] Dana Craig: Groovy Dwarf is perfect.

[50:58] Ari Groover: I mean, it's my last name. My last name. And a lot of people are like, is your last name actually Groover? And I'm like, yeah, y'all, I really can't make it up. I can't make it up.

[51:07] Dana Craig: It's got. I had to double check. I was like, is that real?

[51:10] Ari Groover: Yeah, because a lot of people are like, that's a great stage name. And I'm like, nah, I really wish I could say it was, but it wasn't. Can't take credit for that one.

[51:17] Dana Craig: Groover Groover Scroovy. Gravy. Groovy.

[51:21] Dana Craig: Thank you for joining us. It was so lovely to meet you.

[51:24] Ari Groover: Of course. It was lovely to be around y'all, beautiful souls. Thanks for spending part of your day off with me.

[51:31] Dana Craig: Oh, of course. Where can people where can people find you, follow you, and keep up with you on the internet?

[51:38] Ari Groover: Okay. Um, and I really suck at this, y'all. I really have to be better about this. But um, you can either follow me on Instagram, which is my DJ name, which is Ari A-R-I underscore, and then Groover. G-R-O-O-B-E-S. Um, same thing with Twitter as well. I I'm on Elsmouth. I mean, Facebook is cool, but I use that for friends and family. Y'all really don't want me on Facebook because I don't want to say too much. I I don't. Um, I'm working on rebranding my website, which is Ari Groover.com, but I have a link tree on my Instagram. So if you ever want to find something, it you can go there.

[52:18] Dana Craig: Love a link tree.

[52:19] Ari Groover: Yeah, little one stop shop. Same thing, Ari Groover, Link Tree. You can find that.

[52:24] Dana Craig: That's so cool.

[52:25] Ari Groover: Oh, thank you.

[52:27] Steven Ferezy: Well done.

[52:29] Ari Groover: Thanks, Maine.

[52:31] Steven Ferezy: Um, I'll see you tomorrow, but I'll see you tomorrow.

[52:35] Steven Ferezy: In the Room with Steven and Dana is produced by Steven Ferezy.

[52:38] Dana Craig: And Dana Craig.

[52:40] Steven Ferezy: Special thanks to Joel Wagoner for tinkling the ivories on our theme song. Hit him up at Joel Wagoner.com.

[52:47] Steven Ferezy: We apologize, and you're welcome. We'd also like to thank Jesse Wiener, W-I-E-N-E-R, for our jazzy original music sprinkled throughout each episode. You can find him at jessewiener.com.

[53:00] Steven Ferezy: Last but certainly not least, we'd like to thank Kevin Thomas Garcia for taking all of our ridiculous photos. You can find him online at KTGNYC.com.

[53:13] Steven Ferezy: We are all over the internet on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at InTheRoom Pod. Follow us, like us, share us, pamp us out. And don't forget to subscribe to In the Room Podcast. We everywhere, so subscribe. And thank you so much for listening.

[53:29] Dana Craig: Thank you so much.