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[0:02] Patrick Oliver Jones: Last week you heard from singer and comedian Sarah Hester Ross, who talked about bringing her comedic songs to Vegas piano bars and the vocal injury that almost ended her singing career.

[0:12] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, now Sarah is back to talk about the lessons she's learned from those dueling pianos and why she feels like she may never truly make it by answering the final five questions in this bonus episode of Why I'll Never Make It. All right.

[0:44] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, we are now down to the final five questions. So let's get into these.

[1:03] Sarah Hester Ross: And I was 11 years old. So see, even at an early age, rock and roll, baby. I know. Well, I was in this girl group called Entertainment Review. Um, we uh were a uh it was a group of maybe, I don't know, maybe 30 girls from the ages of five to 17. And we would travel and do the fair circuit and we would do shows and it was very cool to do stuff like that at a young age. I they they actually even did a TV pilot um that I was involved in. Um it never went anywhere, uh, the show specifically, but we filmed it at University of Tampa and like, you know, I was I was one of the girls and I was walking around like so it was it was cool um uh to do. And that's how I got the job at Bush Gardens. Um and uh that it was the end for me. It was the beginning of it was the beginning of the end because it there was nothing else I wanted to do more than be on stage.

[2:08] Patrick Oliver Jones: What kind of songs would you do?

[2:10] Sarah Hester Ross: They were 60s, 70s, and 80s review.

[2:14] Sarah Hester Ross: Oh, sorry, I was wrong. 50s, 60s, and 70s. There was no 80s in it. So 50s always started in the poodle skirts and rocking around the clock and in the 60s with like cute flower dresses and high socks, and then we would change into 70s, like orange bell bottoms. Girls would wear uh, you know, uh afros, which is totally inappropriate at this point. Um, looking back on uh thankfully I was not one of the ones, you know, dressing up as a Native American in Halloween costume. Uh uh and then we went into uh 60s, 70s, all all like top 40 stuff.

[2:55] Sarah Hester Ross: Oh my gosh, I love it. I love it. I see see growing up as a kid, I actually listened probably more to oldies, like the 50s and 60s stuff than I did the the music of the day. Cause I mean that that was my mom's music, so she was always listening to it and Motown and all that.

[3:09] Sarah Hester Ross: So that's what I that's for me, that's the music that I remember growing up. And then as I got older in the 80s, then I started to like graft on to the more contemporary music.

[3:18] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[3:19] Sarah Hester Ross: Yeah, me too. I I well, I again I was raised very conservative, so I wasn't allowed to listen to the secular music of the day. I listened to Christian music and stuff like that. But when I was in the car with my dad, he would listen to the oldies station.

[3:35] Sarah Hester Ross: So that's the kind of mus that that's what I wonder if that's what it was with my mom too. Cause like the oldies was okay because it it was very innocent music, but you know, the music of today, well, they're just talking about the sex.

[3:46] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[3:47] Sarah Hester Ross: Which is funny. You hear songs today. Today and it's like they're talking about doing it.

[3:52] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[3:53] Sarah Hester Ross: They're not only doing it, but like with a 15 year old. Like uh have you ever heard that have you ever heard that song uh uh young girl you're much too young girl I can't remember who does it but it's he's literally talking about a girl telling her to run away from him because she's too young for him and I'm like yeah yeah that and and there's that that song from the 70s I can't think of the name of it but it's like uh oh young girl what what's is your daddy at home I'm gonna come oh yes I know exactly what you're talking about but yeah it's one of those 70s songs and and I just listened to I listened to a cover of it and I went wait wait wait he's singing about a young girl being at home and her daddy's not home and he wants to come over and like I'm like what is he talking about

[3:56] Sarah Hester Ross: I know I know right and that's that was that was that was the 70s the 70s make love not war who whoever whoever whatever whoever whenever whatever oh my gosh okay we've digressed okay well sorry sorry no no no but this uh in a weird sort of way this goes into number two how has the industry changed since when you first started you know the your your musical life how has it changed since you first started

[3:56] Sarah Hester Ross: I think it's uh harder to create unique stuff and be seen um or appreciated. I feel like the industry in all genres, they are finding success with not necessarily unique original stuff.

[5:30] Sarah Hester Ross: People blazing their completely new trail. Um, because you know, it's hard to sell a ticket. It's hard to, but if you have that in of like a repeat or a revival or uh parodies or you know, a name um of some sort from the past, it's it's easier to do.

[5:53] Sarah Hester Ross: And I just think originality is is really hard to sell today. It's really hard to sell. And that's all I have at this point. Um it it is ex it is all I'm doing. I'm trying to sell this original stuff to people who are so used to to already feeling connected to the art because of past or because of that sense of familiarity.

[6:21] Patrick Oliver Jones: They want that.

[6:22] Sarah Hester Ross: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And when something new comes along, they they don't really know about how to process it. And to me, it's the chicken and egg argument. It's like, is it the audiences that have that don't want something new? Or is it the producers who don't want to take the risk so they're not giving anything new, so then audiences get used to the same old same, you know, like TV shows.

[6:41] Patrick Oliver Jones: What are they doing?

[6:42] Sarah Hester Ross: They're bringing back Frasier, they're bringing back, you know, old shows, and instead of bringing and creating new things.

[6:49] Patrick Oliver Jones: So it it yeah, I think as you said, in all genres, they're doing that.

[6:52] Sarah Hester Ross: Yeah, I do. It's it uh yeah, it's definitely not musical theater just musical theater or comedy or anything. I it's movies, it's TV, it's it's it's everything.

[7:01] Sarah Hester Ross: And I I do feel like it's more of the production. Uh it money is involved in the risk of what you're what you're putting your finances into. And at the end of the day, the numbers are higher with reboots and familiar. It's just it works.

[7:22] Sarah Hester Ross: So there's a lot less money for originality.

[7:26] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[7:27] Sarah Hester Ross: Which is a shame. Unfortunately, originality needs the money, you know.

[7:32] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[7:32] Sarah Hester Ross: And and and I would say it's like in TV film, it doesn't bother me so much, you know, because uh a rebooting or a rehashing or you know, remaking a film, it it I don't know, for whatever reason, that doesn't bother me as much because like Dune was done back in the 80s and now it's this huge thing again, but it's it's really a different, it's a different movie altogether.

[7:53] Sarah Hester Ross: But with musical theater, you you can't revive it's got it's gotta breathe new. There's gotta be something new. There's gotta be a new storyline, a new character, a new musical form. For me, and maybe it's just because I love Broadway, I want that to be something that that has to be new.

[8:10] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[8:10] Sarah Hester Ross: I I I tend to agree. Uh the movies and the TV don't bother me as much, but it's because it's not my industry, it's not my passion. Like, you know, I I see I see original musicals and uh people doing stand-up or comedy in a brand new way that I've never seen before, and it I'm in awe.

[8:32] Sarah Hester Ross: It's inspiring.

[8:44] Sarah Hester Ross: Ugh. I don't know. I do not know. I because like 10 years ago, I would have said, uh, if I can fund my life with my music, and dueling pianos did that for a time. It's still doing it. It's like uh yes, it's still doing it. Yes. It is, it is that has happened. I have a performing job that pays my bills. That pays my bills, it pays my life, it pays more than my bills. It funds my my comedy. And like when I when I produce my own stuff, like it funds all of that. So 10 years ago I would have said that, but I still feel like there's more that I want to do. So does that mean I haven't I'm still looking for success? And at that point, does that mean it's just fame? It's just like being known and seen because that is so uh I I hate that I even remotely feel or think that way, but I don't know.

I don't know. But but but in some way, recognition is part of it because the recognition, yes, there is that applause, there is that feeding of ourself, sure, being recognized, but the recognition means that people want to see you, which means they then pay tickets to see you, which means you make money, which means you can live. And and the more you live, the more you create. The more so it does become a cycle effect. So so recognition is is a part of the wheel, no matter no matter what.

[10:25] Sarah Hester Ross: And that's uh and that's the thing, like uh when when the special first came out at the end of last month, um, I remember my boyfriend, you know, he was just in tears. He was so happy for me when we push play on the Apple TV. Um, and it it was a year of editing, if you can believe that, uh, because it it was just so intricate and I wanted it to sound right. That was probably one of the most important things for me with the special and hit play, and I j like it was so satisfying and so fulfilling, but I have to be honest, it immediately my brain went, okay, what's next? Immediate, oh almost immediately. Okay, what what do I need to do? How do I need to sell this? How do I need to push it? I need to hire a PR, I need to get on podcast, like I need like what I couldn't even breathe in the moment of it coming, like, you know, and it was just like, man, what is wrong with you, Sarah?

You need therapy. Um, and I I want to sit back and maybe think that that's just who I am as a person, and it not necessarily is a hundred percent vanity or the lack of fulfillness uh or being happy. It's just uh it's my mindset. And I think it's at the end of the day, if you talk to anybody who you consider successful, they probably are the same way.

[12:00] Sarah Hester Ross: Yeah, like there's a sense of drive being a part of success for sure. And like that project's done. What's next? What am I gonna do? How am I gonna use this project to fund the next project to do this, this? It's just it's never over. So, like thinking of the idea of success being the end, I don't think there is an answer for me.

[12:23] Patrick Oliver Jones: Well, what it means to you is a journey.

[12:26] Sarah Hester Ross: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's that's what it sounds like.

[12:30] Patrick Oliver Jones: All right. Well, number four, describe a personal lesson that's taken you a while to learn, or one that you are still working on to this day.

[12:38] Sarah Hester Ross: Uh I am not like anybody else. And my journey is not like anybody else's. And I have to be okay with that. I have to be okay with other people's journey of success that I want, or I look at and I'm like, oh, how did they get there? And why am I not there? I have to be okay with where I am in the moment. And work working towards goals is different and and having having dreams, but jealousy is something that I I do struggle with.

[13:13] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[13:13] Sarah Hester Ross: Um I I do feel that it's always out of respect and um not hateful jealousy or angry jealousy. It's just why can't I be there? Like, and I look at somebody else's career and journey, and we don't know what they've been through. I I don't know what they've been through. I don't know how hard they've worked. It looks effortless. It looks, but it it probably wasn't. You know, that's not that's not normal for people's journey to be effortless, literally like, oh, I'm just here. And uh it took literally nothing. Um, so just reminding myself, and social media does not help with that.

[13:55] Patrick Oliver Jones: Oh, not at all.

[13:57] Sarah Hester Ross: It's a it's a detriment to my mental health. I'm worthless compared to everyone else online. Everyone is better than me.

[14:03] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yeah.

[14:04] Sarah Hester Ross: Yeah. And so that it that is a continuous lesson that I'm trying to encourage myself to learn and remind myself I uh definitely not there. I'm finding myself uh back into those old thoughts all the time. And again, it's because of social media. And then I have to be like, okay, I'm off and buy and go do something else. I have to give myself out, you know.

[14:29] Patrick Oliver Jones: Exactly. Well, here we are. Number five, what's the most useful advice that you have received and how have you applied it to your life or career?

[14:38] Sarah Hester Ross: I mean, it has to go back to my friend Ken telling me that I was funny. And the the thing is is that what's what's even funny is that I find him hysterical. So when someone that I find funny and talented and above me in a way looks at me and like, you're funny, you should go do this and that. Um, it makes me feel like a a million dollars. When he said that, did it make you look at yourself differently? Like, uh, oh.

[15:09] Patrick Oliver Jones: Yes, yes.

[15:11] Sarah Hester Ross: It may well, because I was coming into dueling pianos as a musician, not necessarily as the comic relief. I I I do feel like I've always been naturally kind of just like a funny person, but I I never consider myself like a comedian or like a comic entertainer. Like all the comedy that I had done was written for me in musical theater. So it wasn't something that I gleaned myself, but working with him and improving and realizing that it was a natural thing that came from me, and then having him as a mentor, like trainer type, be like, You're funny, you should go, you should look into this. You that's what that's your strength in this gig. And it was it changed my life. I mean, I don't know where what direction I would have been in if I hadn't moved to Vegas. If I had stayed in Orlando and probably kept doing musical theater as much as I could, but you know, it wasn't paying the bills, so I couldn't do that full time, you know.

[16:21] Sarah Hester Ross: So it's very yeah, it it really did. That advice changed my life.

[16:25] Patrick Oliver Jones: So that's amazing. Well, it has certainly seemingly changed your life for the better. You're in a wonderful place, and it's been a such a such a joy to talk to you and get to know you. And I just so appreciate you being on the podcast.

[16:37] Sarah Hester Ross: Oh no, my absolute pleasure. This has been so fun. Thank you, Patrick.

[16:47] Patrick Oliver Jones: Thank you so much for joining Why I'll Never Make It. And don't forget, you can become a subscriber and get bonus conversations by going to why I'll never make it dot com and click subscribe or just look for the link in the show notes. Be sure to join me next time as we talk more about why I'll never make it.