The JANN Fam - Part 2
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Welcome, welcome everyone to the Jen Arden Podcast, Variety Hour and Show. I'm with Adam Karsh, as always. He is my sidekick, the engineer to end all engineers. He's in Toronto, Ontario, in his private man cave. That's right. I'm here every week. And you look great. Oh, thank you. You just have a freshly shaved head. I bicked it last night. I am smooth. Absolutely.

Thank you for the nice compliment. That's what my legs are not like right now. My kneecaps resemble someone who got a hair transplant. Oh, no. I am also here with a couple of cast members from the Jan Show.

We have Elena Watko with us who plays the amazing Kale. Welcome, Elena. Thank you for joining us today. Yay. One thing, it's so great to see you. Good to see you too, Jan. You look rested. You look rested. Why are you looking rested? I've been sleeping a lot. I just sleep. I sleep like nine hours a night.

If we're going to be honest, I wish I could wake up like nice and early and greet the animals like you do and talk to the squirrels and stuff. But I love sleeping. I just, I've been able to sleep, but you're not working. That's what young people do. As you get older, as you get older, you can't sleep.

Like you literally, if you get four or five hours, you're like, I'm going to ride a unicorn. I can't do that. I can't focus like that. That's impossible. But the things you must get done, Jan, that's why. No, don't ever think that. I don't. Bird feeding birds does not really count for a life skill. I want you to know that. Also with us today is one of our new cast members,

He is a fellow Calgarian. I'm sort of from Calgary, right, Tanaj? Tanaj Williams plays a character named Trey. And Trey, I'm not going to tell people what your role is. I'm going to hand it over to you. And then I'm going to ask these beautiful, talented actors some questions about their experience with the Jan show. But Trey, Tanaj, tell us...

who you're playing in season three of the Jan Show on CTV. - All right. - On September the 27th at 8:00 PM Eastern. Okay, go ahead. - Good morning, my name is Tinaj and yes, I play Trey. - I love this slate. - You know? - That was a solid slate. - Hi, my name is Tinaj Williams. I'm from Calgary, Alberta.

No, I play Trey, and he's this really awesome, really put together, really well thought out personal assistant that kind of gets hijacked from a meeting with Max that Jan gets in there and gets him. And he's this awesome guy who is really into astrology, who just has a craving to put things into order. So you can imagine he has a lot of things to do when it comes to helping Jan out.

Hey, hey. Well, you, it must be a little bit daunting to step into a new situation. Elena, you can relate because you've stepped into so many new situations in your career, but Tanaj coming in that first day and going, well, here we are. Yeah. Especially when you've had a chance to see a couple of seasons of a show and you know the cast. Yeah.

Yeah, it was crazy. Like, I remember my very first day on set was, like, we were just doing one of the scenes, I think, from episode two, and it was just me and you. And I had watched, I had binged all of season one and season two beforehand, and so I recognized exactly where I was, and I was like, oh, I'm just doing a two-handed scene with Jan Arden.

you know, no problem. First day, let's go. Right. I know that feeling, that feeling, but, but here's what happened. That was so great. Like, I remember we, we met in, in cast holding, whatever, and we were just getting ready to do the scene and we were chatting and he just looked at me and you're like, are you nervous? And I was like,

do I answer truthfully? And I was like, yeah, no, yeah, yes, I am nervous. And you turned to me and you're like, great. Cause I'm shitting myself. And I was like, and I just exhaled the big, I was like, oh, thank God. She's like, oh yeah, I'm scared too. I don't know what I'm doing. I was like, perfect. I'm never not nervous for one thing. I know that I'm working with trained actors.

Because you guys have spent the better part of your adulthoods honing your skills, educating yourselves, the art of auditions, which has got to be painful at times, especially this last year and a half doing auditions in front of a blank wall in your homes and having your husbands or your boyfriends or your girlfriends or your grandmother or your auntie filming you saying lines. And they're saying lines back to you and they suck at it.

How do you know this so well, Jan? This self-tape and partners just trying to act and it just being a nightmare. Have you heard stories, horror stories from everyone in quarantine? Well, I ask a lot of questions. So I'm always asking about how people...

make their way through their scripts. And do you circle your lines? Do you underline them? Do you like having them on electronic, like an iPad or something? Like everyone's different. I'm always looking around in the cast holding before people go out to do scenes. And, and, you know, I, I have to have paper. I just, I've got to look at the paper. I just don't understand. It doesn't go into my brain if it's on an iPad.

But you guys, I mean, Trey, you just walked in and it was like, and Elaine and I had the same experience when we had our first scene together. It was a walk and talk. Is that what you call them? Talking while we're talking? And it was a long scene. And it was sort of, Trey and I had a fairly long, you know, arduous scene of walking through the house. But I just, I'm so flabbergasted by your, both of you guys, your professionalism.

And your ability to be so focused. And I'll tell you right now, the actors on the Jan show are the most prepared actors I've ever seen on a show. But this is the only show I've ever seen. So I have no idea. They could be really terrible or really great. We're just sat in the bar. Yeah.

I actually remember I remember I was there when you guys had your first scene I was in the other room I heard the whole thing and the chemistry was phenomenal I remember like listening like the because so much of the rhythm it's the rhythm of all the lines the writers are so brilliant it's finding the rhythm of it that's where all the comedy is

I was listening. I was like, oh, they sound great. I remember asking you, Tanaj, like, had you gotten to audition with Jan, like, in the room because, I mean, or Zoom or whatever, because during the pandemic, did you get to practice together? And you said, no, this is our first time going. I was like, wow. Talking ever. Yeah. First time talking. And it was just boom, boom, boom, boom. I was like, yes, yes. Just so people know, a lot of times we do get the opportunity to have something called a chemistry read.

And so when you kind of get down to the people that could possibly play a part, you I would get the opportunity to meet them and shake their hand and see them and see if there's a vibe. But with COVID, of course, that's what we did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Elena and I had a chance to meet and, you know, I just loved her straight off. She just walked in and and I knew that you came back for that second time.

which I can imagine must be so terrifying. And I had nothing to do that, Elena. I want you to know that that's the network and that's the directors. No, my God. I would have auditioned 20 times, 100 times. That's what we do. For that part. That's what we do. Over and over. I got to review you twice. That was awesome. I'm going to ask you guys the same question. What is the best and the worst part about auditioning? And...

Like, on a live audition, not sending in a tape, but when you show up at a casting agency, Trey? Tanaj, Trey? What do you think? Feels like so long ago, too. It does feel like a long time ago. Like, Tanaj is looking up to the ceiling like, oh, what was that like? To be in the room with it, like, for me, in order for it to be even remotely good experience, I'm kind of a bit of an OCD, so I'm wildly overprepared. Like, the lines have to be second nature to me because I know...

For example, like I know as soon as I get nervous that that's the first thing to go and you get one shot. So I'm like wildly overprepared. And I also have to be at least 20 minutes early so that when I'm in the hallway just waiting that I'm getting all that nerves out. And I'm not adding the nerves of being like, am I going to be on time? Is there traffic? Like I just, I don't need any of that. I need to be in a place of complete...

like zen before I go in. So I don't even like to really talk to people in the waiting room. Like I just like to just sit there, be there, get relaxed and then go in. And it's the feeling of when you do execute the exact way that you prepared in your mind or even took like the redirect properly,

You're not ever thinking, this is it. I got the role. I have never walked out thinking that. But at least you're like, I've controlled the things that I was able to control. And that's all you can do. That's all I can do. And then I try to just let it go. It almost never gets let go. But I definitely try to let it go. How about you, Elena?

The worst part is waiting, sitting in the waiting room, which is often like a tiny room. It's just terrifying. There's the place where we talk about the office where we auditioned for Jan. We've talked about it. And you were like, you need to like, Lisa, you got to put a plant in here. You got to paint these walls. And I'm like, thank you.

you just like that she needs to know this there's no bathroom here that we need to go to the cafe across the street to change no you do not yes and then we have we stare at each other and then you there's no walls you can hear other things getting cast like over the wall you can hear what's happening in the room and it's like the room itself is is the stressful part the best part is yeah the feeling when it's done yes

I just love when it's done. It's like, it's done well. It's done like, yeah. Whether it's well or what it's like, as long as I went in there and did what I wanted to do. I think that's, it's the feeling that I didn't have to, I wasn't pretending or faking anything. I just went in there as myself and did what I wanted to do. And then I can kind of put that out of my mind. That's the best part is when it's done. So then you have the waiting period. How soon do you know if you're going to be called back or you're not going to be called back at all?

It depends. It varies. Yeah, it varies. With Jan, I thought that they had cast someone already because I knew when they were going to start filming. It was like two days before. I was like, well, I clearly didn't get it because I would know if I'm leaving in two days. So I had packed up and I was going to go to a cottage. And then I woke up that morning and they're like, can you get on a plane tonight? And I'm like, what? I was like, I need to do laundry. Like.

And so I got them to push it to the next morning so I could get laundry done and start my life out. But it was so quick. So, I mean, and then there's sometimes you get it and you have like weeks to prepare and whatever, but it's different.

Yeah, I found like I it depends. Sometimes it's been I forgotten entirely about the audition. It's been like almost over a month. And like, all of a sudden, you get like this phone call from your agent. You're like, oh, they wanted to see you come back in for this show. And you're like, what show was that? Like, and you go through and be like, what was the Oh, yeah, like it's been sometimes it's that or I just assume I'm never gonna hear back, you know?

Do you keep like a little journal of like all your, so that you remember? No, I just go back to my emails. I just go through my emails. I started an audition journal and I would write like everything that happened, what I wore, what was said, what the notes were. Yeah. Of course you would Elena. Of course you would. Listen, when we come back, I'm going to talk to you about what kind of human beings you were in high school. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. We'll be right back.

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And today we're talking about menstrual cycles. No, we're not. We're not talking about that. A lot of people just drove off the road. I'm with Elena Watko. I'm with Tanaj Williams. Tanaj plays a brand new character on The Jan Show Season 3 of Trey. And he's my personal assistant who I nabbed from Max and Dave, played by Zoe Palmer and Patrick Gilmore, respectively. And he doesn't know what he's in for. I kind of need Trey to...

to help me with my mother, who is slowly walking down the road of dementia. If you are following along, I hope there's no spoilers here. At the end of season two, Kale, with a C, played by Elena Watko, brilliantly, both you guys are just so superb in this show, I fire Kale, mainly because I think my character knows that she's right.

knows that she's absolutely on point. She sees through me. She understands how, gosh, dang lazy I am. And the character of Jan, because the real Jan is so, no, I'm not. I'm lazy too. Anyway, so we join. I really want to talk about this a little bit with you, Elena, because Kale's journey this year is so long.

spectacular awesome what this character goes through and all the things that are asked of you so can you talk about that a little bit without giving too much away

I don't want to give too much away. I'm very careful with spoilers because I hate spoilers myself watching TV shows. I've screamed at friends and not talked to them because they'll ruin something for me. Why did you say Cinderella? Like, why did you say now I know this character is a main character and not a one episode. They have an arc and now I know they're going to whatever. What do you mean the Titanic sinks? No.

Terrible, terrible. I will never, I would never do that to your listeners. But I can say that, yeah, Kale does get like a storyline. She gets an arc this season. So I've gotten, I, when I read the scripts, I was just overjoyed and like just touched and humbled and grateful that the writers trusted me to, to, to bring Kale somewhere. Yeah.

this season. So I'm, I'm so excited. What a gift. For anyone who's ever been down and out, just down and out and kind of, and for anyone who's ever been fired from a job that they thought they had in the bag, Kale's journey is going to be really interesting to watch because it is about having good things come out of bad things.

And that getting fired or losing something or ending a relationship or all those things that as human beings we think are so the end of the line, they're not. They're an opportunity to, you know, crawl up and change.

Tanej, of course, your character is coming in to seeing the version that everyone else has seen of Kale, which is on the ball, organized, to the point, dedicated, laser focus. And you walk in to Jan and Nora's house, and you are seeing a version of this person that's just like...

I don't even know what your character thinks. Very much not that, you know? And I think Trey would really like the kale from season one and two. Like, would really... That energy would work really well for him. And he's obviously not expecting that, but... And he definitely does not get that. I'm just going to turn the tables around here a little bit. I want to know what you guys were like in high school, and I want to know if...

Acting was a bug that you had in drama in the eighth grade or, um, Tanosh, like what, what has, what were you like in high school? You went to high school in Calgary. I did. I went to Bishop Carroll high school. Yes. Um, in high school, like I was this weird, I was, I was a weird kid. I, um,

I was an athlete. I always played sports, always. That was kind of a thing that my whole family was into sports. But I was also a singer, so I had been taking voice lessons for forever, but I was doing classical voice. And I was like, I'm kind of over this. It's not as cool as people think it is when they find out I'm a singer. So I'm like, can I switch to musical theater?

And so my voice teacher was like, you can switch to musical theater, but you have to find a new studio. And I was like, terrific. See you later. So I switched to musical theater and then it was in grade 12 that I think I did my first musical. And I was like, oh yeah, this is what I want to do. So it just hits you in the solar plexus, doesn't it? Totally. It just resonates with you. This has my attention. Yeah. Yeah.

This is exactly what I want to be doing. This is unlike anything that I've done before, and I'm really feeling good about this. Similar to you, Elena, or was it just because you guys are both brilliant singers? I mean, what are the freaking chances? We both love musicals. Yep. We both live for the school musical.

I like, I would make sure that every seat that I had in class was beside the window. Like every, I was always in the back by the window so I could stare at the window and dream about what would it be like

Like, like I couldn't wait to get to rehearsal to school. Like, Oh, what would my life be like if I could not be in math class and do what I love to do? Like, will I ever get to do that? Because I just didn't feel like I had permission to do it. My, my parents, my mom was extremely, my mom was extremely strict. Like she, there was no way she would ever let me kind of pursue this full time. She wanted me to be a doctor and I was very good. I was good at school. I was very academic. I was getting the grades, but I just hate, I just, it was just,

It just, oh. And so for me, like in terms of you talk about like the feeling in your solar plexus, like being on stage, singing, acting is it's just lights me up. I can't think of a better like description than saying like something that lights me up. And it's like a glow. Like I feel it. I know when I'm making the right decision. I've talked to Tanaji about this. Like when life happens, you're trying to make a decision. Like what is it that gives you a glow? It should feel warm inside.

like a relationship. I realized that when I got into a healthy relationship, Oh, this is what I feel. I feel light. I feel like my lab, my I'm lit up and other relationships just didn't, I didn't feel that light. So yeah, acting performing has always been that for me. How did you fit in at high school? Like, were you,

Was it clicky? Like I do ask people this about, were you in the jock? I mean, Tinashe, you sound like you were kind of with the jocks for a while there. I mean, that's a weird thing to straddle is being really athletic and being creative and musical. And Elena, you're like this, you know, kind of very focused academic. You're doing, having really good grades. And yet, you know, here's this little person. I can just see your little face just singing your heart out.

Yeah. Were you popular? Do you guys feel like you were popular kids? I was, I, I was friends with everyone. Like I liked going from group to group to group. I think I'm still like that all my, I don't have a click. And whenever I tried to be in a click, I felt like not, it didn't feel right. I've, I always have friends from like literally different parts of my life and different, like I've met them all from different places. We don't really hang out as a group.

Um, but I was, I mean, I will, I was popular because I did a lot of plays and I was on student council. I was like, I, I, I was a prefect. I organized all the school events. Like I, I was totally like into organizing things and planning. I was a manager. Yeah.

I was a manager basically in the school. I felt like I ran it. You were in training. You were in training for Kale. It was. It totally was. I manifested this role. Yeah, I feel like I was very much the same way. Like I definitely enjoyed high school like a lot. I had a lot of fun. I'm glad to hear this from you guys. I'm glad it wasn't some traumatic. No, no, I loved it. No, I hated going. I ate my lunch.

in the bathroom stall. No, no, no. I loved it. I had a, I was like that too, right? Definitely different groups of friends, like between sports and, and, and non-athletes like, like the drama kids and stuff like that. Like I did kind of go wherever I wanted to go. And I, I think that that's, yeah, it was great. My parents were really worried about, I think me going into the arts and I didn't really even tell them that I was

interested in music until I was graduating. So, you know, for eight or nine years, I was just in my parents' basement making up songs because I just didn't think it suited my personality. I was a very funny kid and this writing really, really serious music, you know, people were dying. My family was, you know, breaking up. I mean, I was just a morose kid, but I was really funny. But I know that my parents were worried about me going to the arts. And I'm wondering if your parents felt that

with seeing their kids pursue the arts because the likelihood, and I'm just going to lay it out here, of getting somewhere in acting, certainly in Canada, is not the most shiny prospect. I mean, there's more TV now than when I was a kid.

But I'm sure that was maybe part of what your parents were going through. We're going to be right back. You're going to answer that question. The Jan Arden Podcast. I'm with Elena Watko, Tanaj Williams. Don't go away. I'm coming home to you. Home to you, my love. I'm coming home to you, my love.

I'm coming home to you.

somebody called a lovely quick election, a federal election that is landing square on what would have been our premier day. And we think we would have been lost in the shuffle with them counting the mail-in ballots and they're expecting 5 million of those. So we've bumped everything to the 27th of September. So whatever your PVR is set, don't blame me if you're watching somebody counting ballots on the 20th at 8 p.m. Eastern. You got to change your PVR.

We were talking about the support of parents, what your parents thought about your respective creative careers. So whoever wants to start, I think it's a really difficult road for parents to see their kids going into the arts. Because let's face it, it's not a huge moneymaker a lot of the time. Not a lot of the time. Yeah, I'll go first. I...

I feel like there will be some similarities between us because people have kind of different backgrounds like that. But yeah, my parents, they were always, their intention was always to be lovely and sweet. I can guarantee that. But it was, they just didn't understand what it looks like because they've never seen anyone go into the arts and make a living at it. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So,

My parents were like you we would prefer it if you went and got a degree before you pursued anything else yeah, that's what we would like and I Being a good kid did that I always I always like was training and performing wherever I could but I went and got a business degree before I really pursued this and

I don't regret it, but it was something that I was like, okay, well, let's just do that. And then I'm assuming I'll have time later to do it. How are they now?

They're great. They're, they totally support it. They see that it's actually been working out for me pretty well. And they're like, great, pursue your dreams. And you know, if anything else fails, at least you have your business degree to fall back on. Right. They like to remind me about that. That sounds lovely to not. It was, it was great. It's not, it was not traumatic at all. That's so beautiful. Oh gosh. Mine was really, really tough. It was really tough. My, I had an Asian tiger mom, um,

Um, I'll see you writing a book about this. I want to ask you about this, Jen, about writing books. You just do it. You just do it. Like the perspective of like what it's like being raised by a tiger mother. And you know, I had, I had, I could have gone into medicine like she wanted. You're very smart. I had the grades. I just didn't have the passion. I, I, I hated doing it. I hated going to class every time. It was just, I mean, it was making me depressed.

And this was the only thing that like, that I feel like I would just, I, you know, this, this has been such a, it's a hard career, lots of rejection as we've talked about, but it's like, I cannot, it's like a sickness. I can't imagine myself doing anything else. I don't, no matter what, there's going to be hard work in whatever career you choose. And I'd rather deal with this kind of hard work than the hard work I would have had to deal with going into medicine or whatever, whatever. Yeah.

But it was really tough. I think it was also because they had already lost a child. My brother was a musician, and Len was not good at school. - Geez, you scared me. They'd already lost a child. I thought he fell off a boat.

Yes, he fell off a building and he was stabbed by a cow. Even worse, he's a musician. This is how Asian families operate. It's just like, we've lost one. They've gone into the arts. He's a musician. He's living out of a cardboard box. It's so dramatic like that. It really is. They must have seen your talent. They must have seen your own talent.

No, it was, you know, when I got, my mom was there when I got, when I was on Canadian Idol and I got the gold ticket. Yeah. I forgot to tell people that, but Elena was on Canadian Idol. I was, she came and she thought she was going to be there as like an emotional support person. Cause I didn't think I would go through. So when I came through with the gold ticket, she was like, she was like, Oh,

like, oh my God. And they were like interviewing her, like, you must've thought she was gonna like do well. They said, well, I knew she was good. I didn't think she was that good. Like it was just, it was, it's tough. Now it's great because I'm 36 and I'm an adult and there's no way I'm going to med school now.

And they, my mom loves Jan. I've never heard her laugh so hard when she was watching some of those episodes. She's, she dies. I hope I meet her sometime, Elena. I hope so too. We will. I really do. I really want you to meet her. She'd love that.

So, so when, when did the tides turn? Like, obviously, and this is a real thing that I want people to take note of here, parents and, and creative kids, you know, going into any kind of arts where music, dancing, sculpting, painting, acting, musical theater. I think choosing, seeing our kids, not that I have any that I know of, choose happiness over some kind of monetary guarantee is,

I remember, you know, my younger brother taking engineering at the UFC and he just hated it. He was unhappy the whole time. But I think, you know, he was pressured probably by my parents to take something that would guarantee him that six figure salary. And, you know, being in all that stuff, all that nonsensical stuff, because we were taught in certainly my generation, I'm older than you guys by 20 some odd years, that

is you find a job, you pick it, you do it. That's what you do for your whole life. That's your career. And now we see people having many careers in the span of their lifetime and being able to do different things. So I think you need to pursue something that brings you joy because you can always change what you're doing.

And for parents that are seeing a kid going into music, it's not this locked and loaded thing. And people do realize at some point whether it's going to be what they aspire to and what they want to get out of it or if it's time to make a change. But I think everyone would be remiss to not realize

pursue and find chase that joy in the arts and have fun. And so what you have a crappy apartment. So what you're eating craft dinner, you know, craft dinner. If you'd like to sponsor us, we love you. I ate a lot of craft dinner, you know, but you know what I mean? So your parents now are obviously very proud of you guys.

Yeah. And it's, it's, it's interesting. You say like, you know, you pick the thing because it's out of monetary gain. A lot of the young kids that I talked to, a lot of young Asian girls that talked to me and they're like, what do I, what do you do if your parents don't want you to do this? And I'm like, but you want to do it. And it actually isn't so much about the money. It's, they just want to make their parents proud.

that's the biggest thing that's holding them back is wanting to make your parents proud of you. And so that's why people go into medicine or whatever, what they, they don't follow their dream. But honestly, like now I guess as Jen, like, you know, today, like the best way that I've been able to make my mother proud is to, to find happiness and to be fulfilled today, how I am. Absolutely. That's she feels at ease knowing that, you know, her kids do what they love and they're happy and,

And I think that's what they want more than anything. What I've noticed is like, at least with what we do, like if I were to win $50 million tomorrow, I would still be doing what I'm doing.

now. I love that and that's a very good point. Yeah and like I look around. That wouldn't change your trajectory. It would not change. I would do the exact same thing. I would have a nicer apartment but I would do the exact same hustle and it's like when you I was I just remember asking a bunch of my friends do you love what you do and the majority say and this is the better answer I don't mind it not do you love it I don't mind it it's okay do you know what I mean but a lot of people will say you know it pays the bills and I was like can you imagine like this is the only life you have like it just

I take this road of me being passionate and having the really high highs and the really low lows than to just have something okay. Well, that great cliche of choosing a job that you really love and then it doesn't feel like you're working at all. But I would go a little step further than that and tell people that in the arts, I've never seen people work so hard

The travel is grueling and I will tell you this much, it's not like you always have a job that's in Toronto or in Calgary. Tanaj, you and I are both lucky that the Jan Show takes place and we film here.

But Elena has to leave her dog, Samson. Samson. She has to leave her dog. She has to leave her husband and she has to come for five or six weeks to a city and be in one of those little apartment units with the frigging, you know, you're hardly in there, but it is not easy leaving all the things that you love to go and do your work.

When we come back, I've got a bunch of kind of fun questions I want to ask you guys, but I'm here with Elena Watko, Tanaj Williams, both from the Jan Show Season 3 coming to CTV September the 27th, 8 p.m. Eastern. Don't miss it. We'll be right back. ♪

The sun will shine on TV. Welcome back to the Jan Arden Podcast. If you're just joining us, driving in your car, if you're working out, you won't want to miss this. I don't know what just happened to my mouth, but I couldn't speak. Elena Watko, who plays Kale with a C, Jan Scholl. Tinaj Williams, new character, Trey. I don't know who names the characters. It's not me. But I'm telling you, in the writing room, it is always Trey.

something that goes on for a long time naming characters it is i can't even tell you think it's just let's call him bob how about sharon no this goes on in the writing room ad nauseum and you want to like punch yourself in the head so kale and trey and i want to and i want you guys to answer in your character so think about this this is questions that you would ask on a first date

So, and I'm going to, you each have to answer the same question. So Elaine, I'm going to start with you. So I'm sitting across from you. There's candles burning. I'm sitting across from Kale. Thank you. What makes you unique, Kale? What makes you unique? Tanaj has a chance to think about it. These are, this is from the internet. This is from the internet. What makes me unique? Yeah. No one can do what I do.

I do everything the best and I win at everything. Don't you want to be with a winner? Yeah, I would now get up and go to the bathroom and call a friend if this was my date. She's really, she really knows who she is. Trey, Trey, what makes you unique?

What makes me unique is I have the ability to organize a spice shelf not only alphabetically, but also by gradients of heat, depending on if you want something very spicy. OMG! Or if you want something a little bit more mild, don't worry. I'll be able to find it in .2 seconds. Oh my gosh. Waiter, waiter, could we get some more? Okay, next question. What are some random facts about you, Trey? Random facts about you that...

you know, maybe I wouldn't know or expect. Well, I am also a very passionate singer and, you know, at some point I probably will pursue a career in the music industry. Oh, wow. Trey? Kale? I only need 30 minutes of sleep a night. Jesus. My... My...

I can go for days without eating and still sumo wrestle and win. Okay. And I placed in the top one percentile of intelligent people in the world. Whoa. Oh, yeah. I just took a welding class.

You're getting good at it. Thanks. Great talking to you. Trey, what's something you would like to learn in your life or you wish you were better at? Yeah, that's a great question. I think I would...

I'm not very familiar with my Greek mythology. And I think that might be something that will come in handy in my life at some point. Great. Well, I'm going to keep that in mind for season four. If we get it. Hint, hint. Kale, something that, I mean, you're probably so good at everything. It's difficult. Yeah. Something. What was the question? Something I could do better at? What's something you wish you were better at or that you would like to learn? Something that I would like to learn.

I mean, other people have told me that I could work on my people skills. Oh. What do they know? Those kinds of people are assholes anyway. I'd never listened to their advice, so. Yeah. No, I'm getting a little nervous. I'm sweating a bit. I've got a bit of boob sweat going on right now, just sitting across from this table from you. Trey, what is something that bugs you? Something that bugs me? Yeah.

I can already hear your characters' voices like coming in to the equation right now, which is so fantastic. Like, anyway, so it's just weird how it could just kick into this completely different vibe. And I love how you guys can just go there in an instant. It's so fascinating to me. It's a good improv exercise, actually. We do this in like acting class.

It's called Hot Seat. What do you guys... Do you think a lot about your futures? Like, is it something... Are you planners? Let me put it that way. Like, do you have set goals? Are you...

You know, you want to be at a certain point in your life at a certain time. Or are you, I mean, because I do find you guys to be similar in some ways and how you approach, like you're both these consummate professionals. You're very much into music. I'd love to personally see both you guys pursue and do some, some more recording Elena. I know you've done quite a bit in your career, but you're really acceptable. Like the sky's the limit. What, what do you think is,

Funny enough, actually, Elaine and I were talking about this, I think last week. I, I, I very much am a planner in terms of what I can plan. I want, I know what I want. I don't want my life to look like in, in five to 10 years. Maybe that's the question. Yeah. And, and what I, what changes I need to do to put myself in the best position for that. Like this business very much is a matter of it's a lot of it is luck and being in the right place at the right time. And,

you know, being prepared for when that opportunity comes, but it's also about putting, posturing yourself to put yourself in the best position for that. And so, yeah, that I'm definitely, I definitely am a person who's like, I know what I don't want my life to look like in 10 years. So I'm trying to figure out how to get to that point for sure.

I can't think that far ahead. Like, like five, 10, I can't, I can't, it's hard. It's hard. So I, like, I think it's, it's easier for me to, to kind of stay more present. Like I kind of know when things feel right and go, go by my gut.

That being said, like I love setting New Year's resolutions. I always like I'm all about anniversaries, like birthday anniversaries. I'll do a journal and read what I did last year and what I want to manifest. Yeah.

Anniversaries are good, but five, 10 years. I honestly, five, 10 years ago, if I, you know, I, there's no way I planned to be sitting here where I am right now. There's so much that's unexpected. So in terms of planning, yeah, I can't do that too hard. Here's another, well, Tanaj, I want you to answer that because I'm just, you know,

People are so different how they make their way through their futures and how they navigate, you know, next week or two weeks from now or one year from now. I have, I know people that have everything plotted out. Like I went to school with a friend who says I'm going to be married by 27 and she was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's crazy to me. Was she with the guy? She had to have been. She had to have been. Okay. No, no, she wasn't. She was like 18 years old. Oh my gosh. I remember having this conversation and when she was 27, she got married. Oh my gosh. Well, it was probably coincidence, but you never- I can't do that. But you never know. No. Yeah, you never know.

Yeah, I find like for me, it's just about it is very daunting because there's so much you can control. You have the last minute of the show, Tanaj, so make it count. Make it count. Oh, my gosh. Make it count. Yeah, there's so much that you can't control. There's so much that you can't plan like where you're going to be, what your partner is going to look like, all that kind of stuff. So for me, it's just about constantly having a vision of what I want my life to look like.

And making steps. Visualizing. Yeah, exactly. And making steps that, and not being afraid to take the risk to try to hope that something will work out for you. You know what I mean? I feel like our lives are just a ball of risk that we're saying, I'm okay with it at this point. I'm going to try this. I'm going to work hard at this and hope something comes along. And then something like the Jan show happens and you're like,

I can keep doing this. I can keep going. I can, I can make something work. I, you know, and that's the last question. What is your favorite food? One word sushi. Okay. Pizza. You're listening to the Jan Arden podcast. I've been with Elena Watko, Tanaj Williams, Jan show, September 27th, 8 PM. Eastern. Don't miss it. Season three premiere. You're going to see some funny, funny, funny stuff. Okay. That's it for today. Totally do.

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