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I had with Maria Littlepez's

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Mario Lopez joining me now on Zoom

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six time Any winner for Best Talk

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Show Host Comedian Rosie O'donnald

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Welcome to the show, Rosie. So nice to see you. Goodness,

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see you too, Honey. You're looking great. Thank

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you. I appreciate it. Um. A lot

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of shake up in the world of daytime

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talk right now, Ellen's leaving Kelly

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Clarkson of course, is uh filating

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that time slought Cherry Shepard taking over with Wendy

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Williams Jennifer Hudson. Now maybe

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on the scene. Um, you had

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a very successful run. I was. I

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was lucky enough to be one of your guests. I

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don't know if you remember. Back in the day was a lot

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of fun. What what's what's the key?

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UM in that space, that's such a difficult space

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to really strike

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a chord with the audience, and UM, you the

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perfect person ask Yeah.

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I think you have to really be yourself, you know, and

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try to only do what's real for you.

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You know. During the run of my show, I

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you know, would talk about things that my son who's

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now twenty seven but was a newborn back

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then, what he loved and

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those things kind of took off, or

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I would have hosts, I mean guests that I

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that I love that sometimes you know, the network

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would be like Rosemary Clooney. Again, I'm

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like, yes, because I love Rosemary

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Clooney and she can be on as long as I'm

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you know, So if you do what you love,

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I think the people can tell when it's real

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and when you're just sort of doing

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it for you know, for other reasons.

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And I'm excited to see

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I didn't know Jennifer Hudson had one that was a

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news break for me. Yeah, it's supposed

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to be UM in the fall, so

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we'll see. It's all. It's a whole new landscape

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out there. But you're right. When you're genuine

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and and um relatable, little it'll

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it'll come across in the audience will definitely

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respond. Um. You've got a big

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stand up benefit coming up benefiting

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Friendly House. What what work do

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they do in the community. They

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help women get and stay sober

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and they're the longest running sober house

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for women in Los Angeles.

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They've been open over for years. Was

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started by a wonderful woman named Peggy who

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wrestled brand introduced me too many

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years ago, and I've got familiar

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with their work and how they help women

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who are struggling to stay sober,

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and it's a it's a wonderful

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program with tremendous success rate, and

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I'm really proud to be associated with them.

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That's awesome. That's awesome. I was not familiar with that.

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Very cool. Um, I know, I know

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you're still out there performing

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on stage. I love that that we

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can still get to see you live. There are

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are do you find there are more rules to stand

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up now or things you can or can't talk

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about? Um? Do you feel a bit restricted?

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Yeah, it's a little bit restricted now. I think you

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know, things have changed politically, and

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things have changed socially in the

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country and the world even and

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everyone seems to be on their best behavior,

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and stand up is kind of about breaking

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the rules and talking about

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things that people maybe aren't ready to talk

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about yet. So, um,

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I think it's really interesting. And you combine

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that with you know, people

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getting violent with the performers on stage,

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you know, the Dave Chappelle thing, and

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people being attacked for for what they're

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saying or what they believe in, you know, the

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Will Smith Chris Rock thing, didn't help

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anybody. I think it put comedians

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sort of at risk in in a way, and

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I think people are more trepidacious

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about just you know, improving

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and letting their brain go anywhere. Like I

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always wonder what Robin Williams would have

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done if he were around now, because he

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had no way to stop that pinball machine

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in his brain from going here to there to there

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to their this accent, that accent

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that you know. I wonder what he would

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have been able to to face

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with with the new kind of rules and

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and unsaid regulations that monitor

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free speech here in the United States. It's

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fascinating. I'm a huge fan of stand up comedy.

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I always liking it to that of of being

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in the ring as a fighter, because you're there alone, completely

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vulnerable, UM, all on your

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own, and uh, you're improvising

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and there sometimes and and and they're always

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the truth tellers. Like you said, it kind of

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keeps UM further

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in the conversation. So I hope, I hope you and

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others don't stop and you keep doing your things. Um.

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One of the things that I love is that one of your first

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brakes is on Star Search. I remember seeing that a

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while back can today's talent

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shows like an A. G. T And an Idol you

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think produced that same sort of exposure.

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Is just it's so there was not as

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many options back in the day. So there

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were there were only three channels, plus you

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know Channel five by US, which was

4:34

WO or or something like that or Fox.

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There were there were so few venues for

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comedians to be on television, and The

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Tonight Show with Johnny Carson only had like

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three or four new comics a year, and

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very few of them were women. You know,

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I kind of feel like Johnny felt, you

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know, he had Joan Rivers and had sort of broken

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her and championed her and never

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really was was out there

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on the cusp of cutting it comedy for

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females, with the exception

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of Roseanne Barr, who we all know. You

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know, she went on that show one night an

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unknown person from Utah, and

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the next day she was one of the biggest stars

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in the world. He called her over and was

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laughing at all her jokes. And you

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know, there was a time when one spot on The Tonight

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Show with Johnny Carson could

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change your entire career and project you

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into the stratosphere. And those

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days are kind of gone. But American

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idol for sure has produced

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some of the biggest pop stars around now

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and you can't deny that. Um,

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but star Searched back in the day really had

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a profound effect on people's careers,

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including mine. Yeah. Ed McMahon,

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God bless him. McMahon. I was twenty

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two years old and I was standing there going, how

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did this happen? You know? It

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was it was his daughter. Ed McMahon's daughter

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happened to be at a local comedy club where,

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yeah, where I was, like, you know, just working

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out a little said, I was twenty

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or twenty one, and she came over to

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me after the set and said, I'm Ed McMahon's daughter.

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And I thought, oh, bowl, you are not a right

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a right, And she was. And the next day

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the phone rang I was still living at my parents

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house, and it was a star

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search saying when can you fly to l A. That's

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an awesome story. Yeah, wild

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A League of their Own is getting a reboot

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on Amazon. Um,

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that's so cool. Are they Are you familiar

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at all with what the premps are? They essentially taking like

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the movie and and just breaking it

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down to installments as a series or started

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picking up where they left off, or well they're

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kind of picking up like at the end of League of their

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Own. There was a black woman who threw the ball to Gina,

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remember, and sort of trying to introduce

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that they were going to integrate it a

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little bit, not really fully back in that error,

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but um so Abby Jacobson,

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who was a good friend and I love her very much. She

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was saying that she wanted to present

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it in a more realistic manner at the emotional

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lives of the players, their love

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lives. There, how they manage

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their sexuality when you know, a vast

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major already of those women were gay.

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And at the reunion

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when we all got together and

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and met him, it would be like, oh, hi, I'm

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maybe when I played third base, this

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is my roommate Blanche, you know, like

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everybody nobody had the words back

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then, and they were such pioneers, and I

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think Abby has done a beautiful job of

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incorporating that into

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the mix. And I was lucky enough to do one

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episode and I went down

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there and it was so trippy, Mario

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to see everyone in our uniform.

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You know, it was like all of a sudden thirty

7:33

years had washed away and and there I

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was back in the show

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with a movie, only with a different cast, and

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they were very kind to send me all

7:43

the episodes. And I think it's gonna be a big

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hit. That is awesome, such a classic

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and such a generational field. Just keeps

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it's always on. I can never get you know, passing

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through, flipping through like there it is there,

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It is awesome. Um. I

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saw recently you went Instagram

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official with your girlfriend. Is that significant?

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No big deal? Just having fun? No,

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it's uh, it's great. You know. I wouldn't,

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Um, I wouldn't casually,

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you know, say that it was just having

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fun. I think it's a good thing. It's a

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positive thing in my life. And she makes me

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very happy. Her name is Amy and she's

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a massage therapist. And uh, she's

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really great. That's

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a good one for me, right, premissage scored

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right there. Um, you're pretty active on TikTok.

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What do you like about that particular platform

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compared to the others. I haven't done that one yet. No,

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once you do it, Mario, you'll get sucked in

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because you need all these other people. If

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you're you know your hashtags, you put in your hashtags

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of what you like and what you're into, and

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you know, it's as varied for me as like

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little babies, because I love when like a

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little baby is saying mama or dad dad

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for the first time and the parents happened to get it

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on camera, or the child walks

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for the first time, or maybe it's a kid

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with challenges who overcome something

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and I don't know. It fills my heart with

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that uh emotion that you get

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when you go see a Broadway musical, you know. But

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I love everything from surfing videos

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to political videos and uh,

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you get involved in people's lives and

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you're able to sort of share your

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own life as honestly as you can. You know, there

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are some people who get dressed up and makeup and

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have their perfect let me present to

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you my perfect life, where you know,

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no life is perfect like that. And a

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lot of people have said about about my TikTok

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presence, like I can't believe sometimes

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you do a video and there's trash in the back of your

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you know, like the house isn't always clean. I have a

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nine year old and we live

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together and do our best. But I

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think the more real you can be on that platform,

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the better that it is and and it's wonderful

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to set out information to tell

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people when you're doing something that you want

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them to come to, like this event on

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July sixteenth here in l A. And you

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know, I just want I love it. Sometimes

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you get in a TikTok hole, you know, you go

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into the black coal of TikTok and you

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look up and it's two hours later. Now,

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okay, careful, be careful. I'm gonna check

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it out. I've done the others. I'm gonna I'm gonna check

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that one up. I like all your interests, um

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your your varied interests. It's a wide strike

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zone, no pun intended. You

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can get tickets by the way to Rosie's

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stand up for Friendly House, l A benefit

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at on with Mario dot Com.

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Rosie, so nice to uh catch

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up. Thank you so much for taking the time and check in. Thank

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you. And I just want everyone to know Kathy Griffin

10:30

is going to be doing her first sort of stand up live

10:32

headliner performance there for us

10:34

that night, so come and see her as

10:36

her voice has returned and all her comedy

10:38

is still vibrant and funny as ever.

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There we go right on. Thank you, Rosie,

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Thank you very great to see you by

10:47

On with Mario Lopez