The Coffee First Podcast with Zachary Green

Founded by husband-and-wife duo Bailey Murrell-Green and Zachary Green, Act. Studio is a prominent creative hub in Denver. Originally from Washington, D.C., Zachary draws on his background in live performance and fashion to cultivate a space centered on community and expression. He serves as the studio's Director of Operations and founded Enigma, the studio's live music imprint. Together, they have transformed the minimalist, all-white space into a sanctuary for Black and Brown creatives to collaborate and redefine visual storytelling. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:19

Ice coffee. Yes. Go ahead and check it out on the website. We don't have them on events that I'll go ahead and do pull-ups at.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

They got the Carmel Apple one. And S'more's one.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

S'more's ice coffee.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Heck yeah. Hell yeah. We're at the Act Studio. And I got, can I say Zach? Yeah, Zach's Kuhlman. Okay. I didn't know if he had like. Nah, man.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

My name is Zachary. You know, the government name is Zachary. That's what my beautiful parents name me. But um I go by Zach. I'm one of the owners here at Act Studio, along with my partner, my wife, my partner crime, Bailey Morrell. Yeah, you can find me on Instagram at AC Space1906, and you can find us at Act Denver on Instagram. Again, that's ACT Denver, Act Denver for Act Studio.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Yeah. And the first time I was here, y'all had that Blue Hour. Yeah, man. Which is dope. Yeah, yeah, Blue Hour is a uh That shit was close.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

I appreciate that, man. It's uh, you know, I say I appreciate that. You know, I'm one of the, like I said, uh owner here, so I help facilitate it. But, you know, all credit goes to Naya Joy. You know, and my wife, you know, Bailey behind that, you know, Blue Hour is a literary society where Naya is, I don't even want to boxer in and just say a host, man. She is multifaceted where she can come in and command that room, bring that crowd in, and then and have real intention behind it. Because anybody can throw an event. Um, and I think that's what separates Blue Hour from other events in that arena. It's just that um you get that real family tribe vibe, and it's it can be one night you can feel like you're in a concert, one night you can feel like you're in uh just a straight poetry night, and then it just turns into possibly a therapy session, man, where people do some real healing. So that's cool. Blue hour is one of our very, very true and near and dear uh signature events.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

That's cool. And you gotta separate the poets from the music, too. So I get all the poets to give you that that energy where in the beginning of the night you start feeling the artist, and then you're gonna go up there and perform a song. Yeah, you go ahead and get lit for the night. There it is. Because at the end of the night, that's when the people start, you know, the energy go down. And then it's like, nah, you ain't going down. We got music now.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Come on, like get up. Yeah, and you being modest, man. You've came through and blessed the scene a few times, man. I've seen you do it with your poetry, I've seen you doing with the lyrics, and I've seen you actually just get up there and just start being you. So I want to give you your flowers too, man. Eclipse, you know what I mean. Uh, brother does his thing when he comes into space, so we appreciate you.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Hey man, I got I got no other choice but to be me.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

For sure. For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

I tried being I tried being like other people, and that shit did not work out. Yeah, yeah. The whole story in itself. And I was like, nah, we ain't gonna do this. We ain't gonna do this. Yeah, fair enough. I definitely like this spot. Like this is cool. The fact the the blue hour and the art show that was here too. Yeah, the commune art gallery. My wife owns that. Yeah, that, yeah. I can see that this place gets a lot of. And how y'all just be booking this out. Yeah. How many times a week? Uh, you know, it just depends, man.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

You know, it's just, you know, like some guys would say, like the street go, man. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow. Um, it just depends on the market, depends on the season. Um, I would say we are a natural daylight studio. So, you know, when the sun is out, people really want to get in here to sort of get that natural daylight exposure. But again, man, you know, if if that's not your cup of tea, if natural daylight isn't your repertoire when it comes to being a photographer behind the scenes, we can black the curtains out, use the lights that we have in here, utilize the space for what it is, and it's a blank canvas. And with it being a blank canvas, you can create whatever you want to create in our space.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

That's a nice spot.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Thank you, man.

SPEAKER_02 3:47

That's a nice investment. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Thank you. Definitely, definitely. Appreciate it. This is actually pretty good too.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Heck yeah. Shout out to us the mix, man. Shout it out. He done he done made some nice coffee. You get to taste the difference in the flavor. It's not too strong, yeah, not too sweet. I took it out to the mountains, and it's one who was like, you should promote it as a sweet treat to coffee, to cafes and stuff. For sure, man. So yeah, that's how I second that. Whoever gave him the advice. Sweet treat. I was like, yeah, we're gonna have a sweet treat while you while you need your your your your you know, your Danish or you know, your your muffin, you know? Right, right. So type shit. You know, for sure, man. That's how I'm gonna market it.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

There you go. If you don't want a Danish, we got one. You might as well get one of these, you know?

SPEAKER_02 4:30

At shows, at least I get the whipped cream because I'm gonna have uh the alcohol in the whipped cream, so it just goes on top when they want it, and then it just like soaks into the coffee. So you're gonna be like a little alcohol in there, you know? So I got some ideas. Fair enough. And I'm gonna I'm gonna post this on the podcast so y'all know what is coming next. Yes, yes. I know what to expect, you know what I mean? Alright, so last time you was on here, you were talking about you were on from Washington. Yeah, which I really like it out there because I went to the Chinatown out there. Yeah, gallery place, Chinatown, yeah. It's had some food out there, okay, which was delicious. I went to the little bay area and it was just nice sitting by there, hitting the waves and stuff. Yeah, went down to wharf, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. And I tried the weed out there. Okay. Which was good. Okay. All right. Like it was bomb. So what made you want to move from Washington out here?

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Uh yeah, man. So Washington, D.C., um, you know, it was just wanted to change, dude, you know, just put myself in a space of vulnerability.

SPEAKER_02 5:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

And uh Colorado didn't seem like a too bad place, and I wasn't wrong, you know. So I initially got out here first, and then my wife, when she finished up her uh school and she came out here about, you know, roughly a year after me, man. And uh, yeah, I I like Colorado. Um, I think the biggest culture shock for me, you know, you visited my hometown. Um, you're from Colorado. Yeah. Uh so you you can see the difference there where, you know, not necessarily like, you know, you get this false narrative of like, oh, blacks aren't in Colorado. I think that's a hundred percent false. That's false. Um but I think that when you go to Washington, D.C., you're like, yeah, blacks are here. You know, black, you know, black progressives are here, black, whatever you name it, we're here. You know what I mean? You can see it, you know what I mean? It's not like you gotta go and find it, and I think that was probably the biggest, I would say, culture shock for me, or biggest way to conform when it came to coming to Colorado was more so I have to know out how to go and where to go to find my tribe and find my people.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Because I've I've come across, you know, all plethors of people out here, you know what I mean? I see that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

Because you can't catch, you'll you'll catch more, you'll catch them here, but you won't catch them in this area, and you'll catch them in this building, but you won't see no one in this in this building, and yeah, yeah. I'm gonna move my apartment, I'm the only one on the floor. I was like, damn, I'm the only black dude on the third floor, huh? Alright, cool, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 6:52

I'm just a black.

SPEAKER_01 6:54

It was a shock, man.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Was it hard like adjusting?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Um, I wouldn't say it was hard adjusting, man. I went to school in the South. Um, so I went to school in Murfreesboro, North Carolina. Shout out to Chuan University, that's my illustrious alumni.

SPEAKER_03 7:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

I met my wife there, you know what I mean? So I'll forever be indebted to that little town because I've met my queen in that in that in that space, man. Uh but you know, it was uh, I've experienced that level of culture shock there, but it still wasn't on the magnitude of uh coming to Colorado. So, you know, it was half and half in that town, you know what I mean? Uh my prof I had black professors and things of that nature at college. Um, but again, moving to Colorado, it wasn't, like I said, it wasn't that much of a navigation, but it was more so of me having to do the work to put myself in a space of comfortability. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Yeah. I feel that. I guess that was needed.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Yeah, that does make you better at it. Yeah. Yeah. I had to do that myself. That's just hard. That's just hard trying to make your make yourself comfortable in in comfortable, uncomfortable situations. Yeah. Help with cold showers though. True.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

I don't have cold showers, that that helped a lot. Helps the nervous system too. It does. It does.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

So if that's if somebody ever get nervous, anxiety, take a cold shower. Yeah. You're gonna see how that changes. So I'm gonna ask you the main question that I ask all creators that I put on here. But first, shout out where we're at, who you are, and what you do here.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah, man. Um, I'm Zach Green. I'm one of the co-owners here at Act Studio along with my partner, Bailey Morell. And I am more so the director of operations here in the space. So anytime you reach out and you want a curated event that I I would say have a level of expertise in, I'm the one behind the scenes that sort of help you navigate in one, what do you want within the space or what do you need while you're in the space? So, director operations on that front. Um, that's not to say that that's the only thing that I do here, but that's primarily my role in regards to Act Studio.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Yeah, good. So the main question I ask everybody is what's your morning routine?

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Oh man, what's my morning routine? I think, you know, I'm I don't have any children right now. My wife and I don't have any choice. I'm a fur baby. Uh I have fur babies, man. Uh, so my morning routine, I wake up, you know, not to get too graphic, you know, release myself, use the restroom. But again, man, I take care of my fur baby, man. You know, take him on his nice little walk and he gets his exercise. Um, my Instagram. Yeah, yeah, for sure, man. I'm an advocate for, you know, you know, a lot of people have pets and they just they think their animals don't eat exercise as well. So I make sure my animal gets his exercise. So after he gets his exercise, man, he comes in and he gets fed his nice uh freeze-dried uh raw food. So I feed him a raw food diet, man. So Chop could be getting herring, salmon, lamb, duck, it depends on uh the name of the game or what the what the money was brought in that money or what treat he's getting. But we make sure that he's taken care of because he's protecting us and taking care of us when we're there and when we're not there. So he's protecting the castle, man. So after taking care of the dog, man, you know, I go out there and I face society. Um before I leave the house, I, you know, you got to wake the wife up, tell her you love her, tell her I'll be back. You have a good day. Because you never know, man. I think the biggest thing uh we all take for granted is making it back home. So I think before I leave the house, I take care of my most prized possessions or prized people. That is, you know, my my my wife, my dog, and then before I go out there, man, I just I go and get it. Most days when I leave, I'll go to the gym right out. I get out of house. So after making sure he gets his exercise, I'll go and make sure I get mine.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

That's cool. And that is true. Yeah. We do take advantage about making it back home.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Because there's a lot of people that leave the house and don't make it home.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yeah, yes, it's it isn't talked about as much.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Yeah. You know? Yeah. That's why making sure you say I love you and goodbye to the people when you leave. Yeah. Make sure you say that.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

I like to say I see you later though. You know? Yeah, that's true. You know, goodbye. Could be the end of a chapter. That's true. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

See you later is a lot better. Yeah. Than my brother, I'll say yurt. That's how we say goodbye. Like, yurt, yurt, peace. Yeah. That's it. That's it. We put all that goodbye.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I love you in one word, and that's yurt. That's that's the love language, though. That's it. You guys understand that. You know what I mean? And that's all that matters. That's it. Yeah. What was the struggle coming up with the Act Studio? Uh, I I don't want to say struggle. I don't, I don't, because I think struggle sort of has this negative, you know, I idea behind it. Okay. Um, I think that there's beauty in a struggle, right? Um, I think that we we've hit a few roadblocks along the way to get to the space that we're in right now. Um I think probably the biggest, if you want to say struggle, was us coming to a common ground of a location, right? Because most people would always be like, Oh man, why y'all choose Centennial? Or why you choose Greenwood Village? Or most people would be like, I love that you chose Centennial, or I love that you chose Greenwood Village, man. You know, so and I say that because, you know, most of the creative spaces are in on, I'm not gonna say unfortunately, but most of the creative spaces are in Denver. Denver has a lot of creative spaces, a lot of creative hubs. But we wanted to not join an oversaturated market. Um, we wanted to make sure that one, the safety was one of the biggest things for our patrons. Um, and again, the location is not a bad location, and I think that where we are, it's a very thriving area, Centennial, Colorado being a city and state.

SPEAKER_02 12:22

Um, you ain't gotta worry about parking.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

Yeah, you ain't gotta worry about parking, man. You know, other factors that you may run into in a major city like Denver. Um, it's not an existing issue here right now. So it was more of, like I said, finding that common ground of like we're gonna go to Cherry Creek, we're gonna go to Centennial, we're gonna go to Denver, we're gonna go to Aurora, and we just came up with this space. Um and it was it's a beautiful location. Um I think that was probably what I would consider the biggest struggle for us. But outside of that, man, you know, just taking it and building it brick by brick, you know, we we like to consider ourselves an art atelier in that being a space where all creatives can come. We don't like to niche ourselves down to just being a photography studio, even though you know we have a lot of photographers through here. My wife's passion is more so photography, editorial production. She's I only want to say passion, she's so multifaceted. She's got so many, she wears so many hats, but I think, you know, if you know Muse Focus, you see her behind that eye, you know, if a model says she's going to meet Bailey or she's got to shoot with Bailey, or Bailey's a creative producer behind that, it's gonna be magic behind it. So with that reputation, hell yeah, comes all the photographies with people wanting to do photography in this space. But we have built it brick by brick where people can now see what Act Studio really is and the aspect of an atelier where you know we're recording here today. I like to say that you're an artist. This is one form of your artistry. Because I told the people how you've blessed us on your lyrical side. So that's not boxing you, and you are artists and you're multifaceted too. Um, and and I think that you are a prime example of what you can do within this space if you come in here with the mindset.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

I feel that though, because like you like like you said, you don't want to just box yourself into one thing and then just be like, oh, yes, that's just that guy who does this, you know? Right. Or that's that place that just hosts these events. Right, you know, because that was all I did with this podcast. I didn't want to just do it with artists, with just rap artists or musical artists. That's why I was like, let me branch out and try to get a photographer on here. And I got a photographer on there. I was like, you know what? Let me try to get a model on here. And I got a model on there, and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna just keep getting different people. Fair enough. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

I mean, it keeps you uh in a lane of, you know, the the when you think about fan base, right? Because, you know, you putting this podcast on and however you do your editing and things on the back end, that that that's one aspect of it. But in order for it to truly, really exist and truly get the motion, as the young kids are saying right now, the motion that you want, right? You have to have a different range of people on it.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it actually is helping because not only I get to know about other crafts and different knowledge in other fields, but you know, I get to apply it and I mean, I guess I mean I record it for people to see. So it's good to record it for people to see. I've been I've been you know accepting that. Yeah. So I'm like, you know, you record this, just just keep doing that, all right.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

That's a that's you a student to your own game. Hey, some people, some people lose sight of that too. Like you can't just record and put it out. You gotta study what you're putting out there.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Study what you're putting out there, make it more professional so you know people will see it and actually tap in with you, and you know, you can get some more knowledge from other people, you know. Absolutely, gee. Absolutely. It does help. And I got better with my question asking. Fair enough. And talking to people, so it helped in different ways. It helped in different ways. You be on Instagram?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

Yeah, man. Um I I feel like you know, I've been on. On social media? I'm on social media. I'm on social media. I I and I may be showing my age here a little bit, man. I I come back from the Bebo days and in the MySpace and you know, moved into the arena of Facebook. Man, I was on Facebook the other day. It was like 20 years ago. I was like, damn. You know, I've been on it for a minute, you know what I mean? And I was on social media platforms. Yeah, gee. Yeah, so yeah, I'm I'm on uh primarily, man, you know, I Facebook is more of a uh a family thing. My mom really kept me, you know, make sure you rest in peace, you know, Tanya. Uh she kept me sort of in the arena of Facebook, you know, since her passing I'll get on there and dabble, but you know, Meta, you know, it's a big universe. A lot of people don't know, man. You know, that meta Instagram connection there, man. It's like you want if you're on one, you're on the other. Yeah. Ain't no way around it.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

That is so being it's funny Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah. I mean I dabble with Twitter here and there, but you know, not too much.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

This is like a question off of everything, but is there like a trend that you don't really what's a trend that that's currently annoying you? Like, because there's a lot of trends out there and there's a lot of lies. AI be making up a whole bunch of stuff, people be just feeding and doing stuff just for the content. What's one of them trends that is that's annoying you?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

You know, I got I got a lot of things that annoy me, and I don't want to sound like an old grumpy guy, right? Um I think one of the trends that's really annoying me, man, is uh, you know, the evasiveness with these these influencers, where like, you know, you asking certain people a question or you approaching people, I guess more so the pranks, you know, when you got somebody that's like legitimately grocery shopping, man, you don't know what this individual is going through. Um, you know, this this person could be in here spending their last dime to feed their family into the next paycheck. Or it could be somebody genuinely minding their damn business that's just out and about and they gotta go pick something up and somebody running a prank on them in the store, man. And uh, you know, they get unfortunately, you know, get caught on camera getting out of their body or out of their character, man. And uh I think it's a very uh misleading thing for people to chase this this thing we call fame. Yeah, and um unfortunately is at the demise of someone having a bad day or just losing their cool when they were actually provoked. So I think that's the trend that really upsets me, man. You know, oftentimes I'm scrolling on the internet, dude, and I'll see a prank or or this guy doing this, and you know, you'll recognize the person that's doing the pranks immediately, but you just see this sad person, right? It might not always be a situation where a person is getting uh angry or something like that, but they get put in a vulnerable situation where it's like, come on, G.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yeah, doing the pranks is overrated when you're just doing it just to like get views. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, don't be doing all that. Like, you don't need to just like people will just ask dumb questions just to make people look crazy or just to get that response. Right. You know what I mean? And like that shit would irritate me because I'm like, you don't need to make somebody look bad just to make yourself look good. Absolutely not. There's tons of ways to make yourself look good without making people look bad. 100%. And most people see that making people look bad to make them look good is an easier way.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

It's a narcissistic behavior, you know what I mean? You know, I'm gonna capitalize off of this person's one weak moment or or intellect. You know, you got the pranks where they like, oh, spell this. You know, you are now going out here trying to make yourself look good in a socially disenfranchised area where you you asking this person to spell a certain thing. I mean, you know, you may get a little chuckle out of it because they're spelling something wrong or things of that nature, but it's like, why are you doing that? You know, most of the time, oftentimes it's your own people.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

You know, it'd be your own people, as they say.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

That's true. That is true. I seen somebody at the when I was walking in the gas station and he was another black man, he looked at me, I looked at him, I was like, what's up? He looked at me and was like, Then when I walked in the door, he he hurried up and closed it right behind me, right behind him and just looked at me. I was like, What's up, bro? Like, I don't even know you guys. Right, right. He just kept looking at me when I was like, be your own people, you know, for no reason.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

You know why he probably did that, man? Because you got a you got an aura around you that's a good aura. Some people got this bad, dark cloud over them. Some people got this bright loud cloud on them. He probably couldn't process that. You know, this dude just happy to be alive. That's a luxury. You take for granted.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

That's true. It's like coming home. Yeah, you alive. You better be happy that you woke up.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Hey, here's lost, man. I think you're a good guy. You say what's up to me, I speak back, brother.

unknown 20:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 20:24

I be saying what's up a lot. That's why I knew we'd have to travel alone. I went to Atlanta and said what's up, and these people was like, who did you? It's like, hold on. You had to be cognizant of that. My bad. Never mind. I take my what's up back. Just keep walking this way.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

You know, I will say this, man, Colorado is uh, and I learned this from the South, man. I went to school in North Carolina. My dad is uh, um, my my dad Troy is from um South Carolina, originally from South Carolina. And uh, you know, I would go down and spend summers with my cousin Casey and my Aunt Pauline and all I'll be at the house. And, you know, it's a love language in the South. What's up, you know what I'm saying, that speak, you know, how you doing. Um I think a lot of you know the term southern hospitality, I experienced it a lot growing up, but it wouldn't translate well. When I went back home to DC, you know, I knew the it was like a light switch, cut it on and cut it off, because coming from the DMB area, DMB area, excuse me, um, you know, it wasn't, I didn't grow up, you know, in impoverished. I didn't grow up, you know, rich. I didn't grow up when my parents was middle class, we just sort of was on that surface where you couldn't really tell if we was rich or poor, man. And I'm grateful for my parents to be able to give us that lifestyle. But in those environments, man, like you just said, what's up can be in a plethora of things.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

You know what I mean? What you mean, what's up? You know what I mean? And it's like, no, I'm just saying hello. I'm just saying hello. I'm just saying hi.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

And then at that point, you're saying hello and hi, they won't put a mark in your back as though you soft. And it's like, no, I'm just literally being, I'm speaking, I'm being polite. Just saying hi, because we made eye contact.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

I didn't want to feel weird by just walking out. What's up, bro? Right, right. You know, it's another person. We made eye contact. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

And then they just be like, nah, what you mean? Right.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Right. So you got it, big bro. You got it. You got it.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

Walk away. Walk away and be like, never mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I don't feel that. So this question I only ask a lot of certain people just because it's the brand. Because I'm wearing the shirt. Yeah. New effort every day. That's the brand that I I've made to basically have people grow through creative healing. Yes. And help their mentality. So I feel like one step you take every day. And either, you know, me, I wake up and I'll maybe work out for 10 minutes just like just to wake me up. Or I'll write. 10 minutes to write. And then, you know, just to wake me up. But between one of those two, I'll take a new, I'll do that every day just for a small step. It could be a shitty day where I don't do nothing, a lazy day where I ain't doing nothing. As long as I get those things done in 10 minutes, I'll feel like it's a successful day. Right. But what's your new effort every day?

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Um, I think my new effort every day, man, you know, I don't pray as much as I should, you know, and I say that because somebody praying for me. You know, I've been in situations where I know I should have made it out. I've been in spaces where I know I should have made it out. Um I think my new effort every day, if I ain't praying that day, or if I'm not having that conversation, because sometimes conversation with God or a prayer to God is two completely different things. Whatever your God may be, whatever your you know, higher calling may be, those two things I think are truly two different things. My new effort every day is just to thank them for waking me up, to go out here and have another chance at it. I like that. Um, every day I thank that. And it may not be immediately when I wake up. It might be when I get in that driver's seat before I crank that engine on. I'm thanking them because I know the dangers that I'm facing. I already face danger once I crack that door open.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

So I made it to my car. So you know what I mean? Now before I pull off, most of the time that's the last chance I get to say thank you for waking me up. You know, thank you for protecting me. So my new effort every day is to show grace in that regard.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

I like that. Yeah, for sure. I like that. That's yeah, yeah, that's cool as fuck. Appreciate that, man. I like that. That's an important thing to do. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

You're not promised every day. You're not promised it, man. Promised a new day. You're not promised. When I lost my mom that, man, I think it made me more so. I did that prior to her, you know, leaving this earth too, man. You know, when losing her in the in this vessel form was, you know, the strongest person I knew. I thought that that would never happen. I'm like, ah, man, it ain't gonna happen to my mom. She's good. You know, she just had a little bad point, and then when you see somebody that strong, lose control of their health.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:30

You know what I mean? And it puts you in a different perspective of like, I don't give a damn how much I worked out. Healthy people die every day. I don't give a damn how good of a person I am. Good people are unfortunately uh victims to tragic events or freak accidents.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

It don't matter, man. You know, so you thank them every chance you get to go out here and and and do it again, even if it's doing it again is making a mistake. You know, I think you learn from that.

SPEAKER_02 24:55

You know, you learn from the best way. Like, mistakes are like the most are blessings in disguise, you know? Like, there's a lot of mistakes where I've made where it taught me more than the times that I've actually didn't make a mistake, and I'm like, ooh, let's do it again just like that. And I'm like, no, we can't do it again just like that, because that was a one time. You gotta adjust and do it.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Like, yeah, so I like to use the term gee. If it's a l if you can walk away from it, then learn from it, then that's a lesson. So every lesson is a blessing.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Yeah, you know. That's a bar.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

You know what I'm saying? Every lesson is a blessing, man. So if I can walk away from it and say, damn, I don't want to hit my head again, so I'm a duck next time, or I might not even go that route no more. I learned something in that. Yeah. You know, so the lesson in that was the blessing that I can go back and now process it and think about it.

SPEAKER_02 25:44

That is true. That is true. You talent to do it. I appreciate that, man. You too. You too. You got a talent that you hiding from us? Uh What's something that you just do that you keep away from people that you know you're good at?

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Well, you know, my my core, when I say core, like, you know, my childhood, uh people that have known me more so than my time in Colorado. A lot of Colorado don't know this about me. Like I was a child actor, you know. So I grew up, again, like I said, in the DMV area. So I used to be a part of this agency called Shine Time Productions. Shout out, Mecca. Um that connection was through my Aunt Teresa, one of her good friends. And uh I ended up in that talent agency. And uh my first opportunity that I landed was like an extra on the HBO series, The Wire.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

Oh, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Um so I did a few scenes for them, got a few payments for them. No lines, and you know, I can I can tell you the episode and the season where Kenar got killed in the uh convenience store, you know, you can spot me in there to my people that really want to go and fact-check me. Um so I did that uh HBO series The Wire. I uh wrote an essay to Steve Harvey back in probably like 2006. And uh he was running this program called the Disney Dreamers Academy. So I flew out to Orlando, I did a little commercial for Andrew Soft Tissue, never aired, you know, filmed that at uh Andrew Soft at Disney World with a couple good guys. Shout out Jared. I don't know if you're watching this, brother, but good to good to hear from you in spirit, man. So we were the bank robbers, but the money was the Andrew Soft Tissue, you know what I'm saying, in the sack. So that's cool. It's angelsoft tissue. Um but my real love for acting came from my um what is she what I don't want to give her the wrong title, but Miss Van was my acting coach. So I was Bernardo on West Side Story in like seventh or eighth grade, so I really developed a niche for acting then. So um I went on from learning and loving being in those types of environments, whether it's a you know commercial here, a hit HBO series here, and I started to write. So I've actually just recently finished my third book. So I've got uh two published books.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Oh, snap!

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Uh titled Adversity. Um, and it's it's a crime saga. Um not true stories. A lot of people will read them and be like, oh, I know what you was talking about. I may have mixed a little bit in there from what I've experienced in the neighborhood and things of that nature, and put a little theatrics on it. So, you know, so one of my hidden talents is uh writing. So, you know, hence the Act Studio, man. So we you know sometimes you have a little, I'll have writing sessions in here, things of that nature. So that's cool. Yeah. I'm gonna have to check out your book. Yeah, and available on Amazon, man. My my new uh audiobook, I'm gonna do a different twist on it this year. Did you do the reading on it? I'm actually doing a reading on my my third book. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Okay. Oh, that's cool. And they like crying?

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Yeah, so it's uh my first book is Adversity, just adversity within itself, and it's a it's a story about a young man named James who's uh navigating through life with the loss of both of his parents. And uh the second book is Adversity 2, a walk in her shoes, uh, based upon a young lady by the name of Sarah. So James is from DC, Sarah is from uh Sarah's not from Philly, I'm losing my train of thought, excuse me. Sarah's from Delaware. And uh they're all interconnected, and then the third book is about James's father, uh Edgar. Um so we got James, Sarah, and Edgar, all the three uh people based around that. I don't want to call it a uh three-book series. I'd like to call it a crime saga.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Uh, because I just finished my third book, but I think the adversity. Yeah, it'll definitely be a fourth. It'll definitely be a fourth. My third one, man, it it closes so many unclosed chapters within the first two books. Yeah. Where, you know, a lot of my fans, man, I dropped my first book in 2014. Uh, so I'm playing catch-up, man. I had writer's block for a couple years, and and I think I'm I'm I'm giving myself an excuse. I just got a little lazy in my artistry. I mean, it'd be like that. You know, I got back into the groove. So all you guys has been waiting to figure out who James' dad was and who his mom was, book number three will tell you, tell the tale that you've either speculated on or had no clue.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Hell yeah. That's cool. I didn't even know that. No, I'm about to go check out these books.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

I like reading it too. I'm about to I'm about to go check them out. They on Google too?

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Yeah, man, Amazon. So type it in on Amazon, man. You'll type in Adversity, type my name in. Um but I'll definitely see you the link after this, man, so you can uh be able to tap in yourself. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:15

I'm about to put the title on here. I'm about to put the cover in here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm gonna check them out. Yeah, that's dope. That's dope. All right, shout out who you are one more time, where this lovely place is, and shoot, your Instagram, so we can tap in with you somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

For sure, man. Once again, I'm Zach Green, one of the co-owners here at Act Studio, along with my partner, Bailey Morrell. Act Studio is located in Centennial, Colorado, and you can find us on Instagram at Act Denver. That's A C T Denver.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

And do your new effort every day. Get your coffee first, drink this coffee. It's gonna be lovely, and hopefully in some cafes that I'm not gonna name right now because you know that's too much information. And do your new effort every day. Like, subscribe on YouTube. Here's um block 105 every Wednesday, and get your new work, new effort everyday merch on the website.

SPEAKER_01 31:07

Yes, yes. Bless, brother.

SPEAKER_02 31:11

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

I didn't know you write books, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

That's cold as fuck.