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[0:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: Welcome back to my bonus episode with Roberto Araujo, Playbill's director of video production and a headshot photographer.

[0:07] Patrick Oliver Jones: Now, if you're in the New York area and wanting headshots from a wonderful fellow artist, Roberto is actually offering a special deal to the listeners of Why I'll Never Make It.

[0:16] Patrick Oliver Jones: Go to Roberto.winMepodcast.com for more information on this offer. You can also find that link in the show notes.

[0:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: Alright, well, let's get to it. The conclusion of my conversation with Roberto as I ask him the final five questions.

[0:40] Patrick Oliver Jones: So we shall start as we always do with number one. If you could have any other job outside of the arts, what would that be?

[1:04] Roberto Araujo: That's a very specific show. Why that one in particular? I've been obsessed with CBS Sunday Morning since I saw a segment they did for Rent in 1996.

[1:22] Roberto Araujo: Because I don't know if someone had a videoed it and they had a VHS tape of it in Mexico. Um and back before the internet, it was really hard to get like video footage of a Broadway show on tape.

[1:43] Roberto Araujo: Oh yeah. So um CBS Sunday Morning's pieces are always lengthy. They're like six or seven minutes. So to have all of that with what Rent was, it was incredible.

[1:58] Roberto Araujo: So then when I was here in New York, I was like, what is this show? And I found it and I watched it religiously.

[2:07] Roberto Araujo: Um because I think it's the best show on television. Uh and particularly with all what's going on now, like they focus, they always focus on like the positives, on the rays of sunshine that you find.

[2:23] Roberto Araujo: Like uh there's this guy who is donating like over 300,000 meals from his restaurant that even though his restaurant is gonna go bankrupt, he just can't stop helping other people, you know, like all those stories that maybe you don't see in the news that are alarmist.

[2:52] Roberto Araujo: Um so I've always said that that's that would be my dream job to work at CBS Sunday Morning.

[2:59] Patrick Oliver Jones: Alright, alright. Well, speaking of a bucket list, is there a role or a show that you would hope to do one day?

[3:06] Roberto Araujo: Oh um, I think there's a bunch that I'm like I need to do them like tomorrow, because if not I'm gonna be too old for them.

[3:19] Roberto Araujo: Yes, yes, I have that bucket list as well. Like if I'm not doing it now, I'll never do it.

[3:24] Roberto Araujo: Exactly. Uh I would love to do The Last Five Years. Um I would love to do Company.

[3:37] Roberto Araujo: Yeah. As Bobby. Um and I think that's I think those two would be or uh Baker in Into the Woods.

[3:51] Roberto Araujo: Yeah. You know, as you said that, and this is just a wild idea. You know how Deaf West has done those like uh duo productions where it's a hearing cast and a non-hearing cast, and they're you know, one is singing while the other is signing or doing something like that.

[4:06] Roberto Araujo: It got me thinking that what if they ever did that with different languages? So at the same time, there's an English singer and say a Spanish singer or something like that where it's dual language, but everyone still understands what's happening.

[4:20] Roberto Araujo: I did something like that actually with In the Heights. Uh I did the first Spanish production of In the Heights uh in Washington, DC, uh about two years ago.

[4:35] Roberto Araujo: And but because of the nature of the show, it also wasn't English. So part of it was in Spanish and part of it wasn't English, because part of the plot is that Benny doesn't speak Spanish.

[4:45] Patrick Oliver Jones: Right.

[4:45] Roberto Araujo: Um so uh that was something similar like that.

[4:50] Roberto Araujo: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But like an Evita, you know, like it takes place in Argentina, so we could do a Spanish Evita, Spanish English Evita, you know.

[5:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah, yeah.

[5:02] Roberto Araujo: It just seems like that there's a way to, but even have people from different cultures, like like for example, Bobby, like like have an English speaking Bobby and a Spanish speaking Bobby, and they're both doing the role simultaneously, or something like that to where you're incorporating different languages.

[5:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: I like that.

[5:22] Roberto Araujo: I like that. We're onto something here, Patrick.

[5:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yes, yes, we'll create it.

[5:27] Roberto Araujo: We'll create it.

[5:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: Um alright, number three. Who do you look up to as a mentor or someone that inspires you?

[5:34] Roberto Araujo: Ooh, um I have like different people that I look up to. We're all hyphenated actor, photographers, videographers, etc.

[5:50] Roberto Araujo: Um first person that comes to mind right now, uh there's a videographer. Uh his name is Sean Meehan.

[6:00] Roberto Araujo: Uh he is a mentor, he's become a mentor and he and a wonderful friend. He's one of the nicest people, most talented people, his eye is incredible, uh and he's just so giving.

[6:12] Roberto Araujo: He um he truly he's uh when he says I'm there for you whenever you need me, that's what he me exactly what he means.

[6:24] Roberto Araujo: Uh so he's my video mentor, uh who I've learned so much from.

[6:32] Roberto Araujo: Uh he's one. And then uh photography-wise um I love JR.

[6:42] Roberto Araujo: Do you know JR? He's a French photographer.

[6:46] Roberto Araujo: He does this incredible uh like massive stickers on buildings.

[6:53] Roberto Araujo: Uh he's the one who did that uh image of a kid looking over the Mexican border.

[7:01] Patrick Oliver Jones: It was a massive sticker.

[7:02] Roberto Araujo: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[7:03] Roberto Araujo: Yeah, I remember that one.

[7:04] Roberto Araujo: Yeah. I think his work is so uh powerful and uh and it's not about the vanity of the project.

[7:18] Roberto Araujo: It's always about telling those subjects' stories.

[7:21] Roberto Araujo: Like uh there's a great uh documentary called Faces Places.

[7:26] Roberto Araujo: I highly recommend it. It's uh him and this uh artist that he paired up with uh in a collaboration uh and it's incredible so JR would be my photography.

[7:28] Patrick Oliver Jones: Okay, alright.

[7:28] Roberto Araujo: Um number four, name a lesson or trait that took you a while to learn or maybe one that you're still learning to this day.

[7:28] Roberto Araujo: I mean I think we're Pavarotti used to say that we're always learning like and I feel like I'm always learning photography.

[7:28] Roberto Araujo: Like every time I feel like I got this, I got this, there's always someone who comes in and says oh but also you can take this picture like this and if you change those settings.

[7:28] Roberto Araujo: So then I feel like I'm back to zero, like I knew nothing, I knew nothing all this time.

[7:28] Roberto Araujo: Um and I feel like that just recently I discovered a part of my voice that I've never had there.

[7:28] Roberto Araujo: Um so I feel like we're constantly fine-tuning our instruments, either our bodies as performers or our knowledge as a videographer or a photographer.

[8:49] Roberto Araujo: Um because audio is a nightmare.

[8:54] Roberto Araujo: Well, and being a podcaster, audio is the name of the game. So it's certainly something I my degrees in mass communications, but I've I'm constantly learning as well. And I find this new thing. I'm like, oh, I didn't know I could do that. And then with one click, it's it changed my whole life, you know, or changed the podcast. It's so crazy. And also it's given me the biggest headaches at work.

[9:21] Roberto Araujo: Um there was one time where I was uh uh there was my first big project at Playville, and I was recording audio separately from two labs. And as soon as the two actors that were on set walked out the door, I turned to look at the Zoom recorder, and I never pressed record. And the only sound that I had was from a tiny little GoPro. And no one noticed, but I every time I watched that video, I start like sweating profusely because I'm so anxious.

[10:06] Roberto Araujo: Oh yeah, yeah, that's only happened one time since I've been podcasting. I've always hit record, I've always done that. But I did some I did this special on Sing for Your Seniors. Have you heard of them?

[10:19] Patrick Oliver Jones: No.

[10:20] Roberto Araujo: So they gather together artists and performers to go into nursing homes, senior facilities to sing for them. Okay, yeah. And so I was doing a feature on the podcast about them. And I had not only recorded the artistic director, the founder of it, I also recorded some of the fellow performers, one of the pianists who played and gotten their impressions and what they thought of the organization. I was like, great, I'll do like a talk with her, then I'll talk with him and put it all together.

[10:47] Roberto Araujo: Well for the longest time I had those recordings on my phone. And so I was going to upload it to Dropbox or Google Drive or one of those, but it kept not working. So I kept even having to go back to it and then I would go away for a few days and I kind of forgot about it. Then I bought a new phone, cleared out my phone, not thinking about it, cleared up my phone, got the new phone, and then I went looking for it and I realized I never uploaded it.

[11:15] Roberto Araujo: So then I lost 20 minutes of just interviews and other stories. So I've always remembered to hit record but that's the only time I've lost a recording. So it's yeah and so then when it came time to put that episode together that all I could think about was well I don't have that okay I'll just piece together this interview.

[11:36] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah yeah so there's always a learning curve there's always that one thing it's like okay I've now made the mistake and I will never make it again.

[11:44] Roberto Araujo: Yeah yeah yeah and then there's sometimes like technology comes out that fixes your problems and you didn't know and someone tells you there's this new filter that you can put and then you don't have to worry about that and yeah.

[11:59] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right here we are at the last one so what's the best advice that you've received or the one that's meant the most to you?

[11:59] Roberto Araujo: Two things uh when I was in New York City and I had slept out on the street for two nights and I called were you literally on the street or was it just like literally between my two suitcases and uh the soup of a building like on the side uh with a jacket.

[12:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh my gosh.

[12:30] Roberto Araujo: Yeah. Right. So you're one of those people that I've like ignored and not looked at because I'm I'm I'm so awkward, you know.

[12:37] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[12:39] Roberto Araujo: Okay. Okay. So um I called my friend Marilyn. Marilyn was the producer of the Disney shows that I had done and they were doing another show down in Mexico. So I called her and I was like Marilyn I I'm I don't know what I'm gonna do. I've been here for two days and I don't know what I'm gonna do. So um can I come back to Mexico and stay with you guys while you're in the city uh while I like figure out my life she said to me well that that's a great plan but you made an adult decision with adult consequences so you're going to stay out there and just stick it out.

[13:26] Roberto Araujo: Um and I always think about that like making adult decisions with adult consequences. So that's one thing. And I think like the other thing is that thing that I mentioned before about uh uh Pavarotti that we're always learning we're sometimes people say that it's not the lack of knowledge but the lack of wanting to learn that is the fault and and I totally agree with that.

[13:57] Roberto Araujo: I feel like it's it's there's nothing wrong with not knowing something, as long as you're willing to learn it and uh inform yourself. Um so yeah, we're always learning.

[14:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh yeah, always always growing.

[14:12] Roberto Araujo: We're always taking that that next step.

[14:14] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[14:15] Roberto Araujo: And I think it's so important, especially as creatives, that our journey, our personal experience is constantly changing, which is going to inform the type of stuff that we create, as well as we get older and our voice changes or our perception of this character now changes.

[14:32] Roberto Araujo: And so it's it's a constant evolution of what the next thing is. Because like I've I've had 19 years separate the first time that I did Mamblomancha from the most recent time.

[14:44] Roberto Araujo: And how I did the roles was is very different because I'm now 19 years older.

[14:50] Patrick Oliver Jones: That's yeah.

[14:51] Roberto Araujo: Life really gives you uh the tools to form opinions and thoughts and uh on those roles as well.

[15:00] Patrick Oliver Jones: Like, yeah.

[15:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, that concludes our time with Roberto. I hope you have enjoyed our main conversation as well as this final five questions episode.

[15:12] Patrick Oliver Jones: Just a reminder about that short survey where you can share your thoughts on this episode and all the episodes so far on season four.

[15:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: Go to survey.winmepodcast.com and take part in shaping the future of this podcast.

[15:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: It is so greatly appreciated. Join me, Patrick Oliver Jones, next time as we talk more about why I'll never make it.