Video: Natalie Venetia Belcon Is Hitting All the Right Notes in BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
Mar 22, 2025
Natalie Venetia Belcon has been a star of Broadway Classics like Avenue Q, Rent, and Once On This Island. She also was a staple on TV sitcoms we all grew up loving. After an already epic career, she is receiving rave reviews and a Lortel Award for her role as Omara. We talk about her journey, her return to Broadway, and the amazing road she took to get here!
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Are you ready
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It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon. Well, hey, everybody. My name is Robert Bannon
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You're listening in a sunny, a sunny, sunny, sunny Friday here. Hi, everybody
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Ooh, the sun. Look at that, right from the window. Don't you love? Spring has sprung
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And spring means that it's a brand new season here on Broadway, which means that there's amazing new shows
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classic new shows that you have to see. And we've got one of them with you tonight
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My name is Robert Bannon. I'm excited to be here with you on Broadway World for a Friday exclusive with a superstar
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that I remember seeing on Broadway many years ago in a very famous puppet show
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I'm grateful that you're here. If you want to follow this show and know more about me and what we do here
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you can always go to Instagram at Robert M. Bannon. I have music out on Spotify
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I have all sorts of stuff that you can see interviews galore, either here on Fridays on Broadway World or on the Broadway Podcast Network every single day or on YouTube
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So I hope you like, comment, share, and subscribe, tell a friend about us. It's an honor to always be here with you
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I'm excited about the spring Broadway season. I'm excited about our next guest
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She's award winning. She's a superstar. And I had the chance to catch up with her
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Take a little peek. Natalie. Hi. Broadway World says hello. Welcome to the roundtable
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Hi. Thank you so much. I'm glad to be here. Natalie, I saw you
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I saw you out on the red carpet on this night. This night
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Tis I. You were an award-winning superstar who has been in this game for a minute
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because I've seen you on Broadway a few moments ago when I was a year
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Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. It feels great. It feels great to be back
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It's good. You're here. We're talking today about one of this social club, a brand new Broadway musical coming to the show
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and Feld where you need to get your tickets because when she opens this baby, there's not going to be a
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ticket to be had. What's it like to do a show off Broadway and get your feet wet and then transfer it now
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to Broadway? It's very exciting. A lot of the aspects of this, you know, takes me way back to
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2003, but it's very exciting. It's exciting to get the notice as you're still, you know
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running the off-broadway that you're moving. Well, we got the unofficial, you know, um, word
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I, it's, I don't know. What is the word for it? It's incredible to have been working on something
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for so long and then, you know, and have it move and have people like it in the first place. But
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people seem to be liking it now. So it feels great. You can go to Buenavista Musical
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Buenavista Musical.com, everybody, so you can get your tickets and see this performance
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What is your history with Buena Vista Social Club? Did you grow up listening
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Did you have to discover them? Like, what's your history with them? I discovered them through my parents
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My parents are both musicians. So that's how I know them. I didn't, you know, I wasn't
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Didn't know every detail about them. That happened studying, you know, for this
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But I did know them and the music because of my parents
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And what does it like to play a real? I mean, she's alive and she's, look at this
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this is old school picture. Here's the part of this social. She is, she is Omar
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There's only one, right? There's only one. Nerve-wracking, exciting. I am privileged
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I feel, I feel very lucky to, you know, have been chosen for it
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It's, you know, I feel pressure, though, right? Because, you know, it's not somebody I just get to make up
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I do have to have a little bit of a little of her flavor or her seasoning in there somewhere
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even though the show is basically a fable, right? I can't just make her up
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Okay. Has she seen it? Have you heard word about it? Does she send love
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What's the story? Yeah, she has not seen it. We were actually, I was excited
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We were supposed to go to Cuba and then the grid went out And so it never happened No she has not seen it but they do know that a musical was being made And the pictures of it are absolutely stunning It is so gorgeous the musicianship
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the cast. What can you say about the process? What's it like to share the stage with these artists
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every single night? What's it like as a collective company? I mean, we have a lot of fun together
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It's great as a company. Most of us know each other from off-Broadway, and because that space was so small, we were at the Atlantic, and it's, you know, it's a tiny building, so we were really just all kind of there
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We got really close. It's spread out more now, but, you know, you see each other, and we're still really close
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We have quite a few new people. but yeah, they've all blended in very nicely
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and we're having a lot of fun. We're having a lot of fun. And how could you not
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especially once the first note of the show hits. I set it off Broadway
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I will say it again. It does not matter how tired you are. That first, the downbeat hits, and it is over
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The party is on. All the energy is there. Yeah. So my question to you is
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because that's what I picture. I picture you ready to get up and dance. I ready people ready to scream and yell
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But that's a lot. How do you take care of your voice and yourself eight shows a week doing this
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Well, I do. I'm very careful. I don't mess around in between
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You know, there's no corn concert. You know, we'll be doing none of that
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We'll be doing none of that. No disturbed, nothing like that. We won't be doing those
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No screaming. I got it. And I do. See? Look, she's here
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I make sure I'm very careful. But again, as I said, something happens as soon as the first note hits
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and all the ancestors, the energy, everything is there. And you're just, you're ready, ready to go
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At least I am. I'm sure you all are. I'm sure you also must hear at the stage door or through the grapevine or whatever
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off Broadway and now on Broadway that this music people grew up to. Like it's a part of their history and their culture and their heritage
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And they take it seriously. The fans out here are seriously. Very, very seriously
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You can hear the audience reaction to every song that's mentioned, every person that's mentioned
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You know, Ruben, even when they say, say Hulman Gonzalez, applause, you know, it's typical
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Dos Cardenas, when they hear that every night, it's a gasp. You know, so yes, people are very, I mean
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there are people coming just to hear the music, right? So, yeah
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So, ooh, that's so exciting. And then for the people. It really is
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What about the people who don't know Bonavista Social Club, who are not a part of growing up with this
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or don't know the music? There's something for them. to see in this show as well
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Of course. It doesn't seem to matter to them because you hear it after the show
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I had no idea who these people were and now they're, you know, playing the album on repeat
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I had a, I have a new Q came on Sunday. And we, yeah
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You just happened to have it. Just so happy. He is prepared
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Okay. So they came and they came and then we went to Virgil's for family dinner
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That was one of our spots during Avenue Q. We used to go in between shows and we called them family dinners
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And so we caught up. It was really nice. But Jordan Gelber, Brian, texted me yesterday to say, you know, I started listening to the album on the subway back
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He came with his sons and his wife He said and I haven been able to stop And that is the general consensus from people I see people on the street all the time They like my God I obsessed with the album You know it really is it beautiful music The voices were incredible like one of a kind The musicians are something our musicians are something else The show is really it regardless you going to enjoy the music At the very least you will enjoy everything
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But at the very least, the music is absolutely, it's infectious. Well, I'm so excited about this for you. I'm so happy you already won, the Loritel. I'm so excited the show's transferred to Broadway
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I'm so excited to have you back on Broadway because, we talked about, I'm so excited for you to play another real-life person
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Now people don't have to say what you're talking about, Willis to you on the street. Right
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Finally, can bed die down a little, please? Thank you. You have a whole new thing that people can yell at you
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Yay! Very true, very true. The range that you have is incredible because we talk about Avenue Q, which is comedy and fun
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and was cutting edge and Tony winning and all of that, And then, you know, you're getting to be in rent and singing and singing your teeth out on rent every night
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And then you have like this whole career that I just read about. Like you were a TV guest star
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It's like these these pictures are all out and about. Yes, everybody's girlfriend
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Yes. Everybody's girlfriend. Always breaking somebody's heart. Yeah. What was the journey like from you
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You went to Carnegie Mellon and then you went to, was it television to theater
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Or what was the TV? No. So, no. So Carnegie Mellon. my very first gig was actually the Cosby Show
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I had, that's a very, very long story short. I was Theo's girlfriend
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I was supposed to be a recurring character. And then stuff happened
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And so I did that. But then I booked while I was doing that and the world goes round
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That was an understudy for Terry Burrell. Karen Mason. Yeah. And then I
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booked immediately after I was there on a six-month contract. So as that was ending, I booked
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once on this island, the tour. And so I went out with that
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wound up out in L.A. You know, the agents decided let me send her
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on a couple of things. And that's what happened. I booked Fresh Prince
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Immediately after that, I booked Martin. and then it just kept going from there
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I had a recurring on rock. It just kept going. I wound up leaving because at the time
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nobody cared about theater over there. They just didn't care. They thought I was nuts for wanting to do it
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I really missed it. I wanted to go back. Even for the summer, they were like
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what's wrong with you? Why do you want to do that? Why do you want to do that? And I couldn't take it anymore
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And I left. I got there in, what was it? So early 93, and I left June of 96
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And yeah, I wound up doing play on from there. Yeah. And just kept going, bubbly black girl
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I think it's one of my favorite shows that never happened. Well, it did
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But it was supposed to, that was supposed to be another transfer. you know, from playwrights straight to off-broadway, right
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The same sort of thing. You just go away. We were supposed to have a couple of months break
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and then it just, I think the company, something happens with the company that bought the rights or something
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But I just kept going from there. And then lots of theater. Yeah
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And then Q happened. And then the journey continued. I was going to say, I can only imagine staying to your agents
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I'm going to leave L.A. with recurring roles on television to go make no money in theater
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and go to them. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. Yes, you can imagine
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They had out their pom-poms and everything. My manager was pissed. It was a whole, oh, my God, it was a mess
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I also at the time, I had just gotten this manager, and we were going through a thing with, oh, my God
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There were quite a few moments out there. Anyway. But we're going through a thing with Pocahontas
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So I was the drawing image for Pocahontas Screwed contract And then there was nothing we could do about it right And so I pulled out that like I think they had like four to six months left of drawing
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Yeah, it's a whole thing. If you go in the book and look, my name is there, they just don't say what it is
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But if you look at the picture that you just pulled up of fresh prints and then you go back and look at the beginning of Pocahontas when it's
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started because they slowly started morphing the drawings, right? So it looks exactly like me
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Yeah, it was a lot of drama. It was a lot of drama with that. Yeah, and they just kind of
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swept me under the rug. It was terrible. They were paying me $2.99 and then, yeah, it was terrible
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But see, that's why a moment like this, to me, this show and everything that's happening is that
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your career, like to see the trajectory and now you're always, opening this season, a big giant Broadway monster show
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That's you. You're the cover. You're the face. Like the time, the work, the drama, the fighting for a gig, the gigs that could have happened
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the shows that are. This is the moment, Natalie. Yeah. I know. I know
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I know. I'm still kind of pinching myself. It really hasn't sunk in yet
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It hasn't. You know, maybe once we open and I actually start to sleep a little bit more
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You know what I mean? It just hasn't hit yet. It hasn't. People keep sending me the texts of the billboard, the thing in Times Square
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I'm just like, wow, okay, but it just hasn't fully sunk in yet
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Yeah. Well, for all the artists out here, how do you keep your head together? Because you have notes
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You're in previews. You're in rehearsal. You're trying to get things together. You're not open yet
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The show's not set. So you have all the noise. So how do you keep it? It's about that show
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Yeah, one thing at a time. One thing in a time. It is a lot
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It is a lot. And so I find myself, I tend to like, well, I shouldn't even say like quiet
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I require a lot of it, just in general. It's just my personality
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So I have a, I just told a funny story, Thanksgiving. Most of my family doesn't live in the country
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And so they'll come visit this past Thanksgiving, no, two Thanksgivings ago, they came to visit
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And it was just so many people in my house and noise. And I disappeared and went and took a plate and sat in my closet with my dogs and my cats
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And I got like a quick 15 minutes and then one of my uncles came and found me and just kind of gave me the thumb to go back downstairs
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Don't try it. But I, so that's what I need to do
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That's what I have to do. I just have to like separate myself and go, even if it's like in the corner of
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of the stage where it's dark, where the lights aren't on, you know, just to get, just to get like a little veil
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like a little cloak put over me. And that's what I have to do, as much quiet as possible, yeah
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That means when you see Natalie out on the street or it's after the show and after she's
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give her a moment of silence, but you're harder in the closet eating a turkey leg
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Give her a moment. That's true. You're just about recharging your battery, especially all the output and the noise and the fun and the music
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You take a moment for you. Yes, yes. I walk through that door at night, and I literally, all I do is I just, I grab my animals
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I just, you know, sit in that little squeeze for like a good five, ten minutes before I move and do anything else, yeah
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Well, I want everybody that's here. You know, everyone, I have to say this, she gave up her dinner
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This is her break, everyone. She gave up her time to chat with us also. We're so incredibly grateful
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but we're going to be rooting and sharing for you through this season through June, through one season
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Just clear your mantle now. You already got a couple. Let's keep it going. Listen, from your mouth to God's ears
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I welcome it. I welcome it. Joinavisimusical.com. If you're visiting New York or you're in the New York area
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if you have family that grew up on this music or if you've never heard of them before, they're going to rock your socks off, literally
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Please come. So get your tickets. It's such an honor. You're so sweet. Thank you
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You're so sweet. always and you have so much talent. I'm so jealous of you, Natalie
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Thank you so much. Okay, nice to meet you
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