Without further ado, I'm going to introduce a gentleman who really needs no introduction, but Mr. Vern Stewart, who is also a Claude Virgin. Thank you. Me, a Virgin, isn't that something? I do have to apologize if we have no microphones, so we'll try to get as good of an audio as we can for this. I'll try to... Annunciate. Project. Yeah, right, okay. Starting at the beginning, we share a very interesting footnote in Leather Contest history. Would you please tell us what was said at the 2004 Mr. Selblok Contest in Chicago? Well, there are a few of us here that were there that night. I see out in the audience whose mouths fell open that night, mine being one of them. It was the Mr. Selblok Contest, and I had been invited to be a judge, along with who I believe is going to be one of the emcees at IML this year, John Tindall. And it was the step down of who lives in Europe now, with that particular contestant. Anyway, as a judge, you generally, before your interviews are over, they'll ask you, producer or somebody, to write out a question, which can be asked later on during the contest, and we all did. And one of the questions, and unfortunately it had to be me who wrote that question, I had said, you know, with Chicago being the first city that it is, and with so many ethnic backgrounds there, and there weren't a lot of people of color that were entering IML contests and things like that. My question was, what could you do to bring more people of color into the leather community and into IML? And this one contestant stood up there and said, when he was asked the question by Frank Mawiki, he said, well, guess I'll have to go to some colored bars and find them. Well, Frank is generally never speechless, but his mouth kind of fell open. And he's standing there holding the microphone. And I'm sitting next to John Tindall at the table, and John Tindall, I thought he was going to break my rib. Did you hear what he said? Did you hear what he said? Yes, John, I heard what he said. And the outgoing title holder looked at me and said, no, he didn't say that. I turned around and looked back, and there was Mufasa and a few other, quite a few other Onyx members. And their mouths just kind of... No, he didn't say that. And I could hear, I was screeching, Mary Elizabeth, did you hear that she was way in the back? And you could hear her all the way around. Frank finally pulled himself together and tried to compose himself and said, oh, I see. Which is my line, generally. And nobody...this man was a contestant. But they were all in the back, so they didn't hear the answer. But when they came out on stage, they just saw all the audience, and the audience would steal a... If they had said something wrong, did something wrong. And they found out later on. And that story, I think, has circled the globe. I've had people from Europe that said, oh, I understand you had a very interesting interview at a contest in Chicago. It went round the world. And of course I was going to ask the person once it was over, and I can't even remember his name now. I was going to ask the person, well, just wear these colored bombers and I need to go, too. But the last we saw of him was the heels of his shoes hitting the front door of the cell block. Never to be seen or heard from again. So that was the story of... And they know some of the people here that I'm not making it up because they were there and heard it. So it was like, some people just need to close their mouths and think before they open and insert a shoe in mouth.  I see people now. I'm like, oh yeah, I remember you. What made it say that? I wrote the question. That's how that all went down. And I didn't know, I couldn't remember who won that contest. I mean, sure, I couldn't remember, but the next day, a little on that. But when he contacted me about doing this, he says, you know, we've met. And I said, oh, have we now? And I said, yes. I was at a particular contest before I knew you. I've been to 40, 50, 60 contests or more. And he said it was in Chicago and it was at the cell block. I said, uh-oh. There's another guy that I met here yesterday in that tent out there. And he was taking pictures. And he said, oh yes, I remember you. I was doing photos for some publication or something, and he was down in the front. And he said when the guys gave his answer, he said his camera went up like this, because he was standing on this platform. He says, I forgot to snap the picture. So anyway, that's that. And I won that year. That's where we're going. As an information, yes. So as a joke, I got very sick a couple of months ago. So as a joke, Vern sent me an email and said, oh, did you have your operation at one of the colored hospitals? We've got a lot of mileage out of that. But please tell us a little bit about growing up, a little bit about your family. Well, I'm a California kid west coast. My mother, oddly enough, was born here. I can see why she fled. And out to California, and I think during that era, World War II, just ending, you know, FDR was doing his fireside chats and all of that.  And my father was an architect and a contractor. So he was looking for something, and he did find employment out there. And we moved to Berkeley. And Berkeley in those days was, you see Berkeley is there, college town, et cetera, et cetera, and all of that. And when they went to look for a house, they did find a house on the upper side of Berkeley, the north side. There was a South Berkeley and North Berkeley. North Berkeley is closer up to UC. Found a house there. They liked it, set it to buy it. They put the money down and blah, blah, blah, and done all these things that you do when you're purchasing a house and all of that. Then they found out that they had what was known, and maybe some of you are not familiar with it, but towns had them, and some towns still have covenants, building covenants, living covenants. And what a covenant was at that point, they didn't want any people other than wasps, white, Anglo-Saxons, you know? And it wasn't just no blacks or no this or no that. And of course, you must remember at that time, Japanese were in tournament camps out in Livermore, California, Camp Parks and all of that. So they weren't highly thought of either, you know? And they were told that they could not move into that neighborhood. Of course, my father thought, what do you mean? Well, they had this covenant. They were the first people, first family, to take it to court. We were talking about 1945, 1946. And it went to court. They got a, I think his boss, my dad's boss, turned him over to this, recommended an attorney who thought it was outrageous. And of course, the attorney was of Jewish persuasion. So you know how they felt about all the business they had gone on across the pond. And he said, I'm going to take this. And he did. And of course, he put his staff and everything to work. And they went to various houses and were asking and investigating what this, what do you think about that? And for the most part, the neighbors that were German on one side, and I don't know what the others were on the other side, but they asked all the people on our block, our side, what they thought. None of them had any problems with anybody living there. People on the back block and two blocks away, they were complaining about it. You know, we never even knew anything about it. But anyway, they went to court. It was broken. And you get the newspapers and the Berkley-Bezette and the Oakland Tribune and all of that, that we were the first black family that moved into that neighborhood. And we were the only black family in that neighborhood for probably eight or nine years. But I, you know, I knew the kids there. And across the street was the Salvo Naval Project housing for guys that were in the Navy with their families and what have you. And so constantly going to school, grammar school there, you were always meeting new kids. There weren't, oddly enough, any black kids that lived in that project. Well, as you know, there weren't many blacks that were in the service. It wasn't until Harry Truman came along and said, oh, nay, nay, we've got to change this, you know, but it's hard. So anyway, that's how, that's where I grew up. I never had any problems. There was no such thing as, oh, no, they lived there. And those people and this, that and the other. It was, there were people in the community that California was very, it was a type of city where you had college, you had a lot of people there. But they didn't do anything open. I mean, like in the south, it was like a nigger, this, that, the other, and blah, blah, blah. I didn't hear any of that there. They were much more, it's a date about that, you know. Step aside or look at your funny and things like that for some. But I never had that problem in grammar school. I never had it in junior high or anything like that. I didn't go through that. So it was kind of like reading about all of these things that were happening in the south. And I was like blown away that there were still segregated schools in Virginia in 1960, you know. And I'm trying to deal with this in my head. Of course, we were just kind of like blown away that this was going on. Not denying that it wasn't going on, but it wasn't going on there in that area. So I didn't really have any problems like that. Some years later, I was going through some papers and dealing with some stuff from my mom, my grandmother. They had opened up and taken out a insurance policy. And in those days, your insurance man came to your house and collected. You didn't have all this email and send and list that and the other. Insurance man would come. And I happened to be at Metropolitan Life some years later and looking through the files and the application that he had taken out and then the application to say, oh, they should be insured. Oh, these are a very, they're a very nice colored family. I read it. Nice colored family. And they should not be denied, you know. Of course, you had another insurance company called Golden State. And Golden State Insurance was black owned. And so they'd come to your door and you'd pay $1.95 or whatever it was, you know, for your insurance for that week. And they came weekly just about. A couple of them came monthly, but that one was weekly. And when he found out that folks had another insurance with Metropolitan, which is basically a totally white insurance company, and it was fairly big, and it still is, I assume, he said, how did you all get into that? How did they let you in? Let us in, you know. But they didn't know what he had written down there. That's a colored family. So, and I showed that I asked for a copy of it. I showed it to my folks some years later. I won't even repeat what my grandmother said. But anyway, we grew up there. Went to school there. UC Berkeley was, of course, a well-known school, but it was always known as a, there was always problems there. Crazy people went to UC Berkeley.  Younger guys here probably are not even aware of that, but it was a school that always had something going on there, you know. Free speech movement. You had Mario Savio, Appdecker, you name it. They were there. And that's how I kind of like got involved with it because you were around it.  Berkeley was a pretty general neighborhood. So you always saw and heard these things, and Berkeley Gazette and the college paper always had all of this information in there and things were going on and this, that, and the other. And of course you had a governor, a governor who governed Goodwin J. Knight, Goody Knight. He didn't know what to do. You had Clark Kerr, who was the president of UC Berkeley. He was trying to deal with things that were to keep everybody happy. Well, you couldn't keep everybody happy. And of course you had Katherine Hearst of the Hearst dynasty, William Randolph's and all of that. She sat on the Board of Regents and of course she didn't really want to be bothered with any colored issues, but we moved from colored to negro at that point. We stepped up. So there were those things that brought all of that along. And of course when the free speech movement started, they just were horrified. We've got to get rid of these people. We can't have this. It's blemishing the name of the University of California, blah, blah, blah, blah, this, that, and the other. And of course while all that was going on, then you had Huey Newton, who suddenly jumped into the fray from the deep south and his family had moved to Oakland. And Huey Newton was just, he was a nice person as I got to know him later on, but he started out, I mean, like he even said, he financed his education by robbing people up in the Berkeley Hills in Oakland and Tiedmont and this, that, and the other. He did that. And he didn't mind telling somebody that. I met him, Stokely Carmichael, all those things were going along at that time. They were at Merritt College. And in between the police chasing them and beating them and shooting at them and arresting them, of course, as you well know, if any of you are familiar with history, how that all played out. Along came Angela Davis. We all remember Angela Davis. And she had bought some guns. They had some things going on. They had arrested some of the people. Some of them had been sent to San Quentin, which was just across the Bay of there in Marin County. And they escaped. And Judge Haley was shot in his courtroom up there in the Marin County Courthouse.  They stopped you for anything. Back your eyes wrong. You were pulled over. I had that happen to me any number of times.  And harassment got really very big. There was a time though that one or two of the free speech movement people decided to run for mayor. One even ran for governor. And of course, Angela Davis was on the Communist Party and she ran. And of course, good old Ronnie Reagan was the governor. And oh, no, no. We can't have that. He did everything he could to make sure that she was removed from the staff of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Yes, where she was teaching at that point. He put that into effect so she could not get a job. And things like that. So I mean, there was that era. The 60s was like something. But I, you know, survived it. And it was a learning experience, meeting and knowing these people. And they were pretty down-to-earth people. I never saw the parts of them, gunfire and shootings and all of that. We'd certainly read about and see it in the news and everything else. But most of that happened in West Oakland. Well, Homie didn't go to West Oakland. It was kind of like, you know, okay, you folks are over there. We stayed in our side town. And of course, my parents would not have had me involved in any of that. Although I did go to demonstrations. When I thought it was something that I believed in and it was wrong in the way of, especially police treatment and et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, I was active in that. And only hoping as I look around, make sure Channel 4 or Channel 7 wasn't there with the cameras.  And so it was like I learned, I grew from that. And it was a learning experience which I will never regret at all. It was part of the 60s, the terrible 60s. You know, they said they were the sexy 60s. No, there wasn't much sexy about that at all. And of course, needless to say, it was going on there. I think California received more coverage than a lot of other places. In the South, you heard coverage about somebody being maybe strung up to a tree or drug down to a tree or beaten, but you didn't hear much about any equal rights and civil rights thing until Martin Luther King came along. And then people started becoming involved in California, UC Berkeley. They had folks that went down there during the voter registration time. And I remember my mother saying, you don't need to go down there because they're killing people, this, that, and the other, and all of that. I did go once. You had to go in a group. If you went across the street to the store, you went as a group with somebody looking over the shoulder. You marched back over to your motel where you were staying or whatever. It was something because those days they would think nothing of pulling a gun and blowing you away right in the middle of the street. And it was scary. It really was scary.  And you're going to go. I was lucky. A couple of guys weren't as lucky.   And of course, at one point we moved out to Hayward, California, which is Southern Alameda County. And a nice little neighborhood and everything. Little did I know that there was one of the guys, Sonny Barger. Sonny Barger was the president of Hell's Angels. We'd all heard about Hell's Angels. And that's when I kind of... And he wasn't that type of a person, at least not to the neighbors. Everybody liked him. And he was okay. Had a lot of women and lots of whites and bikes and this and that. And that's when I saw all the leather business. And... And they had their leather jackets and this and the other and tattoos and all of that. And I got to talking to them. And there was a couple of bars in San Leandro, Oakland and Hayward that they hung out. Well, knowing him, I went to a couple of the bars and walked in there and bigging the beard and down on the hair and that's that and the other.  And when I bought a motorcycle, the first one I thought my mother was going to absolutely drown me. I thought she was going to fall over and die. Because I didn't even tell her I bought it and I kept it at somebody else's house. Wouldn't dare bring it home, you know.   So I tell my grandmother, boy, what's wrong with you? Why would you, white folks? And I said, no, I just want to know. And when I got to bite you, and when I got to bite you finally, they saw it for the first time. I remember. And in those days, they didn't have, the law hadn't been passed about the helmets. So you didn't have to have one.  Yeah, you know. So she was keen on that, you know.  You know. So I got involved with that. Then, of course, after those clubs that I had attended, then I stepped on across the bridge to San Francisco. Well, I didn't know at first that there was, you know, the straight clubs. I saw motorcycles parked out in front. There was this bar called The Tool. There was an old tool for the whole bike sitting out there in front. And I stepped on it. And I was not a kid that was afraid to go. I was nosy. I always wanted to find out, well, what is this? You know, what's this all about? And I went into the tool bar and it was on Folsom and fifth, I believe. Anyway, I went to the other guys with their chapsons and their leather pants and this, that, the other. Ordered a drink. Nobody said anything to me about what you do in here or anything like that. And I stood there and listened to various conversations. And I didn't know what I expected that they were going to be talking about, but what I didn't expect was that they were going to be talking about, oh, so and so is at the opera house this weekend. And such and such. Did you see Julia and that wonderful recipe she did about Keesh? And I thought, no. And come to find out when I was in there closing hours two o'clock in San Francisco, California for the bars. But I'd go outside and I'd see these people getting on their bikes. But the rest of them in all this leather taxi, taxi. And I thought, oh, well not all these people have bikes. They're just coming down there and dressing the part. And that was decased, you know. And then when I started talking to people I met some very nice people and the surprising part about it was they might have had leather on at night but they were in near Brooks Brothers during daytime down in Montgomery Street which is the financial district of San Francisco. And they lived pretty normal lives. No, they didn't live in hovels. They had very nice apartments, very nice homes, lovely artwork and all of that. No, no, no, no, no. That's kind of like how I met people and got involved with all of this. That was it. Well, IML is coming up again and you attended first IML. Please tell us a bit about that. IML, the first IML was 1979. Just a mere child. And the reason that I wound up going really was in those days IML was not this Memorial Day weekend. Oh, no, no, no, it was always Mother's Day weekend and my folks had since moved to Chicago.  So I went and, of course, they were putting together this contest. And if you read, if any of you have read Chuck Renslow's latest book, the one that came out last year, he tells you pretty much the way it was those first couple of years and they held the first contest at the Raddison, which was down, not too far from Gold Coast, which was on Clark Street then. And, of course, there was another bar right across the street, not on Clark, but on the side street, which was owned by, it was the Redoubt and the guy that owned it also owned the baton. And they kind of had a, between Chuck and, God, what's... Jim Flynn? Felicia Flynn. Oh, ho, ho, ho. Felicia Flynn, yeah. So Felicia Flynn had a bar and she had the baton and that and all that stuff. So they were kind of running against each other and all of that. And his bar was kind of nice and we used to run back and forth across the street to the other one and all that. And Jim Flynn was doing very well with the baton. It became one of those bars kind of like there was a place in San Francisco called Fenokios where the drag queens and all that went. And it became one of these places where the tour buses pulled up there and all the straight folks got out and marched in and from Iowa and Wyoming and all these places to see these men in women's clothing, you know? And so he was doing quite well with that. Plus Jim Flynn was also very big into the sports and athletics he had. He sponsored a number of softball teams and this, that, and anything that was big into that. So we had those things. So between the two bars and Clark Street along that area had a couple of the bulk stores and this, that, and the other all that was going on. So you'd see people stepping on off into the bookstores, the reading rooms, or as several folks used to call and Marcus included, the library. Oh, I'm on my way to the library. Now read this. So it was kind of like okay, Pat Batt, Patrick Batt who's a very good friend of mine lives in California now. He was his first manager and if you looked in that book you saw pictures of Pat at the Gold Coast and what have you and all of that and he and a couple of others said we ought to do something about having a leather contest other than just a Mr. Chicago leather and let's open it up to other cities, other states, all that kind of stuff. And they did. And that first year, I think there were three or four from San Francisco that besides the winter. And if you hear, I think there was maybe a total of, I'm not even sure if there was 20 people, I don't think there were. I think it was like maybe 10 or 12 people or something in local that entered that contest, you know. And it went over kind of well because it was something new and it gave people something to go to and to look forward to do it and they could dress up in all their finery, you see, and I mean that became a, that was known as a high cow event, you know. I wonder what it was like right now, you know. And so you folks, and leather stores were starting to open up. There was a male hide leather in Chicago and he said, oh, let's get in on this.  So they had that and there were several other people who were getting involved in it. So it became a thing. Well, once David Hoff became IML and back to San Francisco, well, he pushed a lot of people. And the bar that he was connected with, which was called the Arena, and in those days he worked there and the folks started coming in and they didn't know exactly what to buy.  You know, you need a coat. You need San Francisco weather, you know.  You don't have to worry about all those vests and this and that and da, da, da, da, da. Because in those days, compared to now, leather was inexpensive compared to, but it was still hot because we weren't making that much money, you know. And so you had to pick and choose.  Well, hell, you could get away with wearing some Levi's and black Levi's boots and jacket. That was cool. He pushed it and the next year, a few more people came out of curiosity, not because they were going to enter the contest, but they wanted to see, well, oh, there's some others look like us. Oh, okay. And they came. And those two, those first two years, it was a kind of a family thing. You knew all the bartenders at the Gold Coast and they were very friendly. You had a good time, but you connected with people, people in Chicago and a few other places that they had come from. And that's kind of like how it really got started in Chicago for people there. I know that Chuck had many times said, well, why don't you have it in such and such and why don't you move it around? He said, no, it's going to stay right here and stay right there. It did. And that's where it still is and will always be. He said it would have been too much of a hassle to try to move a contest of this and that. And we've seen how that's gone with ABW. You know, I mean like, oh, yeah, they moved it from when I started with it and was one of the producers and all that. Able Productions, we did it in Washington, D.C. It seemed to be a perfect time of year. The weather was decent and everything else. Now, of course, the first two years that we did it, it was in Boston. I was with Mike up there in Boston to get the things started. Then it moved down to D.C. Well, after all that, they thought, okay, you had that there. Then when it was sold, we turned it over. Dean Ogren decided to move it to, of all places, New Orleans.  Hello? It was hot and it's sticky. And it was horrible. And they've tried that. They tried it with international leather, sir. When it was drummer, it was always held in San Francisco. That's where Tony DeBlois was. That's where the owner of Publisher of Drummer way back when. It's always been there. The magazine was there. So it made good sense to have that. Plus, they had the advertising of the magazine. And in those days, everybody was buying drummer. It was the magazine. And so it's never changed. And let's face it, Renzlo hasn't gone to the poor house behind having an IML. I mean, he hasn't had to pick up any food stamps to survive. I'll tell you that. So he's done well. And it seems to be okay. But it's changed over the years. It has changed drastically. And I can't say that I'm all that pleased with the direction that it has taken. It's become more of a social gathering.  And it lost its initial reason for being. You look at the guys from 79, 80, 81, and all the people that were IML. People respected them and they said, this is my representative as the years have gone on. It's kind of like a whole hum. And that's not to say that everybody hasn't had some kind of agenda, but it's kind of gone down. Certain years, it's almost seemed like it's a costume party. Oh, well, no, you have this confused with Halloween. This is not the way it's supposed to be. But I think, you know, they're trying, and I would like to try to make sure that the guys that are entering these contests now know something about the contest, know something about history. Why are you up here?  And with your little size across and what have you? Because it developed into that for a few years. It's like, oh, her. Well, it's like, I hope that it's going back to the way it kind of initially was. And in my heart, I do believe that Rinslow won't say anything now, but I know he would like to see it the way it started, I believe, and continue in that area. Well, in coming full circle, you judged IML last time. So what are your thoughts on judging? Well, I will say this, you know, having gone to all these IMLs, 32 of them, whatever, I have watched and I have dealt with these and observing. I used to love to go and just sit back and watch. Between my oldest sister Marcus and I, we used to sit there and we had them down and I usually had it down to who the top ten were and narrowed down sometimes even more so than that. You knew who IML was going to be, just by the way he behaved, by the way he acted, by the way things went. But what has happened is that people are taking it more as just, oh, I just wanted to end it for fun. Well, I don't want international Mr. Fun, love. He's representing me. Well, then I want to see something more than fun. And I think that it's why it's so important to me that people know their history or something about it. And I'll tell you, last year I was never so disappointed with so many of the class of 2012 that could not even made three former IMLs and five or six of them were right there at IML last year. Well, what does that tell me? What does that say to me? Okay, you don't even know the person that was here before you or two years before or you don't have anybody that maybe might have been a role model in IML? Well, then why did you bother to enter? What's going on here, you know? And when I saw that last year and people and one said, oh, well, I'm just so bad with memories. I just can't remember. Well, Missy, then you need to be sitting at home somewhere reading a book rather than representing the entire leather community. And you're not just representing the men. You got the leather women also. We can't forget them. They came along a little bit later, I mean, from Judy Tarwing McCarthy on up, you know? They've put their two cents worth in. And not to say that they haven't had problems and what have you, but they're still doing it, you know? It started a little bit later. It's 87 as opposed to 79. But, you know, they're doing okay. I was disappointed last year with the lack of knowledge that so many of the contestants had. There was one that came, he had an IML from his area. He didn't even know. I mentioned his name as well. He didn't know nothing about men. And he was the only IML from that particular country ever. You think, okay, what are the reasons that you really want to enter this contest? Because your friends said, oh, that's a cute little outfit over there. Get that. You'll look good in that. I don't want international, Mr. Cute Little Outfit, representing me.  I have certainly said over the years that we've only had two people of color. The first one, Ron Moore, was real. Worked for a phone company when he was climbing poles, and he was as funny as the day was long. Called me on a Sunday and, what you doing? He said, well, I just put my hair up in curly. I got on my fuzzy slipper. But he was real, and they mistreated him when he was IML. They didn't do the same for him as they did for white IMLs, some of them. He used to have a company in LA that always took the current IML and used him as a model for their chaps. That company was the first company that started making chaps with the zipper on the outside. Every year, IML, when it came time to hear from him, never saw a picture of him at all.  Went to San Francisco. San Francisco was always your first exposure to your IML community for the parade in June. Well, the year that he won, they decided to float the owner of the bar. Well, no, we're only going to have our runner up. Who was a runner up that year? And I'm on the float. It always had been IML, and if there was someone else, they always rode and waved and what have you. It didn't happen. I was fit to be tied. I went off. Has it so happened? The woman that owned a bar called Chaps in San Francisco, Chuck Slaton, he had just bought a brand new bus, a brand new truck. And his other half was the San Francisco police officer. Had a beautiful black Harley. He put that Harley in the back of the truck and put Ron Moore on there. It was like, as was seen going up and down. I mean, it was like gorgeous.  We still have to work on the problems of segregation and this, that, and the other. And there's some of it in the leather community. Oh yes, there is. They may cover it over a little bit. It's not as obvious as it used to be way back when. It's why I've been always a big pusher when Mufasa and all those started onyx. Maybe, you know, that would bring more people to the forefront and get them in. It hasn't been what I would hope that it would be. I'm not sure that it hasn't been spread out enough rather than people thinking, oh, well, you have to be part of onyx in order to enter the contest. No, you don't have to. Which is the case this year, you know, part of onyx. And I would like to see more people of color, Asians. How many Asians have they had at IML? Like three, you know, one of them was from, he wasn't even from here, he was from Canada, you know. But he did well, you know. And they've had a couple in LA, from LA and this, that, and the other things like that. So we'll see if there will be one this year. And I think that's great. Bert Stewart, thank you very much.


Hey guys, this is Matt Beck from freesaloneducation.com here with American Salon hooked us up with this cool booth and Hooked us up with cool people. I got Lauren and Roderick We got a ton of information from these guys that we're about to give you so I hope you guys enjoy this podcast So where I want to start is with your story because you guys have One of the most unique stories of this entire day of every interview that I've done You guys are doing something completely different than Anyone else so that's interesting. So let's talk about that. Let's talk about your backgrounds real quick I know let's start with you Lauren. Okay, we'll go forward So I've been in the industry for about 18 years. I did an apprenticeship at a salon. So I didn't go to school I learned everything Hands-on in the salon Which was a really interesting way to learn I it made me grow up in the industry being self-taught So right, you know while I've taken advanced classes, and I think they're really important for foundational work I've been able to fill in the gaps by just trial and error And I think as artists and as creative people We should embrace that a little bit more and and and work really hard at Making ourselves better instead of relying on other people to make us better Yeah, so take what you learn from the extra education and the additional training and take it back and make it yours And how long ago was that that was 18 years 18 years I started yeah 18 years ago So 18 years ago you started out as an apprentice So you were self-taught kind of did you find your path because I know that you're really into styling and Editorial and all that did that was that right away. It wasn't it wasn't Um, I always thought outside the box when I started doing here They threw me into color and I specialized in color. Okay. I did that for about five years I master that and I'm gonna use quotations, you know because we ever really master anything Yeah, you know I felt like I had a really good grasp on it and then I wanted to move on and so because I couldn't cut it Made me really uncomfortable to call myself a professional only being able to do one thing and mastering one thing So I found that over my 18 years I tend to dive in and submerge myself into one area and once I feel confident and comfortable I move on you move On yeah, so I did color and then I did cutting And then I went into more event styling and and classic hair dressing And that's when I really started to take a lot of classes because it interested me You know hair does what you tell it to do so it's a matter of speaking the language that hair speaks Yeah, and being able to talk to it So through all of those classes I really realized that my true love is being behind the camera and Styling for photo shoots and I started doing just fun photo shoots with locals in my area Photographers models just to have my work on record and be able to watch my growth because I think as hairdressers It's easy to forget how far we've come. Yeah, and by getting all of this documented I was able to look back and say wow seven years ago. This is what I thought was amazing. Yeah, how far I've come Do you find that that classic work that you kind of started with? Because obviously the editorial work that you do now you find traces of that classical. Absolutely. That's the foundation Right so without having a foundational understanding of how to do hair Then you sort of can't break the rules right you have to learn all the rules to break them right sort of the way that I've approached it And being a more creative person really strict boundaries. I'm the one that goes okay. That's cool But now what right which ones can I break and I always ask a lot of questions of why and how? So that I know Which rules you can break and which ones you can't because there are certain areas and hair That it's easy to break the rules and it makes sense to break the rules But you have to know the rules first right to know how far to push it So yeah It's always been a passion of mine and just being able to create amazing images that are a little different but still understood Right has been it's been a great journey. That's awesome a great journey. So tell me how the journey kind of Shifted and then now you tell me about this partnership that happened. So that's really funny. So Probably about you consider this a partnership Is this what this is? We're business partners official We're a little more than that we we have been dating now for years. That's awesome I contacted Roderick six years ago Because as I told you before I can't call myself a professional if I don't understand right? So there's areas of the hair world that I just didn't understand Clipper cutting was one of them So I felt like how do you call yourself a professional when a client comes in and you say I'm sorry. I can't do that, right? It's ridiculous. Yeah, so I contacted him about doing a clipper class for the first salon that I owned and I owned it with partners We hit a rough patch some things Happened that we weren't able to afford to bring him up And it's expensive. He's expensive. You can tell he's still Don't let this affordable education for everyone So so I sort of put it off and two years later I sold my salon and I was Doing some different things. I was working with a different company throwing hair events Okay So I sort of stepped back from the ownership role and was doing my clients behind the chair But also getting involved in other areas of the industry.  It doesn't work for me I have to do 8 million other things while I'm doing that. So, right? I Wanted to take clipper cutting and I contacted him to come down to South Carolina where he was I figured to be cheaper But I just went myself and figured it out and so he I said I don't have the money like right today But if you can give me a schedule, then I can plan for it. You know about him He was on my Facebook constantly posting barbers barbers barbers. Well, who else to ask then the guy that's really yeah Yeah, exactly. So I said I don't have the money right this minute But what can we work out? You know, give me a schedule. I'll plan for it. I'm I'm amazing at financial planning so I mean I can plan for this and He said well you can come down and I won't charge you for the class. You can take me to dinner Sounds like a proposition a little bit proposition. I was trying to help a starving artist Get to the next level in their career It gets better. So I said, okay. I have nothing to lose. I'm gonna go take this Just to let the audience know that there are two stories that goes along with this whole With with our relationship. So I'm gonna let her tell the first one So I said, okay, I'll come where should I stay so he sends me a link to a hotel that looked like nothing I would ever feel comfortable staying in okay. It was probably rented by the hour So I explained to him that I don't stay in such places. What's my other option? And he said you can stay at my house. Oh So another good move again trying to help the starving artist to get to the next level in their career You can stay in this really disgusting place or my house. So I'm thinking he's a killer And I think well, you know, let's Google this guy right and see really what's going on He had over 50 pages of Google results. I thought he's got way more to lose than I do Go ahead and chop me up in a million pieces.  You can't do anything wrong because people will know I mean go ahead and chop me up You got 50 you're all over the web. Somebody's looking exactly. All right, so so So I you know, I agreed and then I thought well, I'm staying at this guy's house I got to get to know him. So I start trying to like start conversation. He's very cold. He wants nothing to do with me It's the weirdest scenario. I'm like, I'm staying in his house. He's not flirting with me. There was nothing flirtatious Hence the killer thought right like only is luring me in And about three weeks later after we started talking more and more and more he flew up to Detroit and the rest is history I never even took the class. So you lived in Detroit. I did and you lived in South Carolina Yes, I'm from South Carolina And I'm Roderick Samuels. I moved from South Carolina to Detroit about a year and a half ago To start on this amazing adventure with Lauren Both in love and in labor We did meet and I guess it's kind of funny because it wasn't like on Tinder or you know match.com We met on Facebook But it was all business. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah, it's cool that you guys share that passion for what you're doing And I always joke like if you know, nothing's ever gonna happen to us because it can't we can't date normal people now Right, like we have this understanding that we're in the same industry And we we balance each other in ways that I don't think either of us have ever Experienced and you're traveling together and you're creating something and that's what's cool about this industry Like you you've now opened up the door to be able to work together and absolutely tell me about You guys have launched this education program. So tell me about your education that you're doing now So hair lab Detroit is an independent education company Lawrence background is in editorial styling. Of course, we you know with her 2013 Naha nomination in her 2015 win in texture. I'm I'm actually been been in the school business for 15 years I'm at I'm in my second school right now. Okay, Michigan Barber School And but our main focus is our salon and basically for the most part are Hair lab Detroit the Academy. Okay, where we kind of balance each other in that way, too I'm a barber been a barber barber stylist for 20 years. Let me make sure I get that right. Yeah, because I get called a liar Or have liar Beatty's While I'm on on on on the air But but doing in 20 years and loving every moment of it. So tell me so as a barber Because I have been getting feedback actually a couple of people that we interviewed today launched men's cutting programs There's a big boost in Contacted me first. I know right and nobody asked Men's cutting programs are becoming very popular or became very popular a year ago Yes, and in the hair, you know salon business. So what's your take on that since you've been doing it for 20 years? What's your thoughts on the current situation with barbering right now? The current situation with barbering right now is amazing Again, you know, you see a lot of stylists that are out there and no hate no offense to any of the Cosmetologists out there working those clippers as well, but you see a lot of people wanting to To to get more barber education. They want to see a lot more people They want to create those classic fades and tapers and right now it's booming, you know, I think it was a matter of fact I don't I can't remember exactly what the article was But it's supposed to rise again like 2.1 million dollars in the next like year or so So it's really crazy. Yeah, it's really crazy really crazy.  I love to see that, you know at one point It was a front for a lot of people, you know to do bad things and now it's at the forefront of the industry and continuing to make waves That's awesome. Yeah, man. So tell me to be more creative. Can I add to that? Yeah, it's more creative than it has been. Yeah in the past because now it's in the forefront, you know I think that that's sort of where we fill a hole. Sure, right because we have the balance of Coming from a school system. He's great at breaking it down to basics because that's what he's used to He's used to teaching people that don't know how to hold a comb, right? So coming and teaching these cosmetologists Barbering you have to start at the ground floor and I think that's where sort of the miss is that you know They're not teaching to barbers. They're teaching to cosmetologists, right? So because we have no experience a lot of us that either went through school or did apprenticeships learned Sheer over comb because that's what was in you know in the 90s and then early 2000s and now that clippers are in You have to start from the ground up. So that's what he does. That's what he's used to And you know we balance each other in that because he's very structured in his educating and I'm sort of the more creative You know there's a million different ways to do something and let's just do you know Right be careful when she starts to move her hands like this because she starts feeling shapes and textures in the air that aren't there Yeah, so just just be careful because we teach together. We're able to reach all the learning types, right? So and for us, that's great.  So Contingent or depending on what the show is, you know a lot of shows really find a lot of interest in us Because you know we can teach together both the barbering and editorial styling aspect But we're also amazing apart, you know so if you want to learn the latest and greatest and techniques to to help you create your next your your next Collection or photograph competition work, you know You want to see Lauren if you really want to get down into men's grooming how to properly hold a clipper Why how to build a male clientele you come to me and then both of us even from a business standpoint We have a lot of salons that are con you know that are that are wanting to hire us because they're dealing with Millennials They're dealing with a new group of people and for me. It's like okay from the undergrad perspective It's like okay. This is what should be taught in schools. However, I'm gonna bridge that gap now Let's talk about from a salon ownership standpoint She's gonna hit you with all the real facts of what you know What salon owners are looking for when it comes to hire so From whether it be from the business aspect of the personal appearance industry or from a technical standpoint We actually reach every say you guys hit everything in the industry absolutely Very when we teach together a lot of what we get booked for is like a men's and women's clipper cutting Mm-hmm. Okay, so he'll teach the men's end of it Which is like the barbering end of it and then I teach how to use clippers to cut women's hair to make more Money, right? So you can do a much faster women's haircut using clippers and in our industry time is money Right, you can tear through a haircut and have it be very efficient and very accurate in 10 minutes versus 20 minutes You've just doubled your money, right? So that's where we kind of combine forces Well, I think I think a lot of times stylists don't realize that clippers are no more than mechanical shears, right? You know where you have two blades on a sheer you have 26 teeth cutting at 2,500 strokes per minute on your mechanical shears So I think that you know just bringing that type of focus to the education bringing that type of You know being able to bridge that gap between barber to stylist Terminology mechanical shears versus traditional. I think that we're really really doing some amazing things as you know for education for our industry Awesome. So tell me what is what's coming up with you guys? Where are you headed next? Oh, we we have a lot of changes going on right now We've been traveling all over the country more and more and more and you know with each year It's like more weekends that were gone and we had a full staff at the salon We're sort of scaling back and going into our own private studio working by appointment only so that we can keep our clients happy But still keep the industry happy, too So we're now sort of had to make some really hard decisions, you know, do we want to grow the salon into this giant? Salon to take over Detroit or do we want to keep sharing what we what we're doing with the industry because the salon being new It's hard to grow something from the ground up. Yeah while you're on your way You can't yeah, it's hard So anyway, you know and we are firm believers that you know when you divide all of your energy into too many different places You succeed at none of them, right? So we've scaled back that we're moving into a different space So we'll still run education out of out of our smaller space But we'll incorporate photography studio inside our space. Okay, so that's kind of what we're missing too Is turning out more editorial work on a regular basis because we're so busy traveling running a salon dealing with staff doing all this stuff So we've scaled back the salon. It'll just be the two of us We'll scale back the number of days that were there, you know maintain our client base But then have more time for the industry so very cool We're available for hire to travel and come to your salon or you can come to us We haven't set a set schedule in Detroit because it's a little easier to be fluid with it Right and see where we're needed the most and kind of go from there Yeah, we're pretty good with doing pop-up classes, you know, whether it be, you know Couple weeks in advance, whatever the case may be we do a lot of jam sessions Okay, I'm throughout for our space and just hosting a lot of cool events. I know that right now We are definitely doing the IBS Las Vegas show. Okay, we are looking forward to the Naha announcements on May 18 Okay, I hope that I get a nomination this year And definitely a win But you know for the people out there I just want to let you know, you know being a downhorn barber And entering into the men's hair styling competition still hadn't got a nomination yet still hadn't won But I'm still continuing to to fight and for a lot of the barbers out there, you know I think this is something that'll be amazing. It's really good exposure, but it's also good practice Yeah, and really working on your craft. Very cool. It's a lot of stylists that enter.  And so You know, if nothing else at least he's sending a message to step outside your box and I think for Naha That's about your box You know and not making it is okay You know, I made it the first year that I ever entered which was Mind-blowing right because you go into it like we'll see what happens, right? But to make it to the finalists round the first year and then not make it at all the second year You know the second year I entered it was like I was missing so right, you know That was an ego a punch to the ego a little bit, but it doesn't make you quit So what do you think is like so now that you've done it, you know a few times and you're entering as well Like what is your focus when you're entering like why why do you think the first year you you got the nomination? Second year nothing so the first year I entered texture texture has always been a love for me It's one of those wild Wild cards that you know, you have to kind of Yeah, it was a huge challenge for me because to me I look at that category and think it's so boring Right because there's nothing to feel there's nothing, you know So to make that interesting and it's funny because we'll see what happens But my contemporary classic collection I like a lot more than I like my texture collection Okay, it's been interesting and he's done a lot this year too. Yeah, so normally I into I've been entering men's the men's You know hairstyles of the year category every year for the last three years Still hadn't given up yet, but you know for me it's more so like you know what since I'm a since I'm a barber I have a barber's license for me. This is something big just for the barbers Yeah, yeah get the nomination get in the wind, you know that will help to really for me solidify where barbers are in our country and the importance of Being a barber not just from you know from a styling aspect But just really really giving the barber something to look forward to too, you know, and right now texture and men's grooming are really really hot Yeah, I think you guys are in the perfect place. Yeah, so good luck with thank you Oh that can't wait to see what happens. Absolutely also congratulations on your cover. Thank you This isn't it this isn't it will be out in June, right June. Yep. I just found out last night It's a it's a huge huge success for yeah a lot. I was working for we dad And we actually have it will be an afro on the cover which I mean it hasn't happened before so that's great It's a really big deal. We're excited. So how can people follow you guys find your education all that? You can go to he runs all of our social media. I'm like, I don't know. How do they find us? You don't even know pass codes right now No, I gave them all the passwords to all my social media so we can help me help me help myself So you can check us out at hair lab Detroit on Twitter at hair lab Detroit on Instagram at hair lab Detroit on Facebook at hair lab Detroit on Google plus Yeah, I didn't know we had all those you do you can go to www.hairlabdetroit.com and you can also get some of our education you can get a subscription or individual educational classes for 99 cents at Hair lab Detroit the Academy dot com good job Yep, and you can find Lauren Moser on Lauren M. Moser on Instagram Lauren Moser on Facebook Roderick Samuels on Instagram at Roderick Samuels on Facebook at Roderick Samuels on Twitter At Roderick Samuels on Google plus that went to the same school you did it it works because the more you read it I mean you can't forget it right. I got shameless plugs for days. That's awesome. Thank you guys so much Good luck with everything. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you to American Slawn magazine for letting us sit here and talk to cool people That's pretty much it. We'll see you guys on the next video Thanks. Thank you


YouTube team keep it clean. What's going on is engraving here with another video and in this video I'm here to share my post game thoughts from the game that we all watched between the Baltimore Ravens and the Denver Broncos and this was a really good game And just to jump straight into it the Broncos defense, which is a really really good defense it was clear that their mission was to stop and not let the Ravens run game go crazy and They did a phenomenal job of stopping the Ravens run game I don't even know how the Ravens got a hundred yards because if you watch that game It did not look like they got no hundred yards on the ground, but it was collective so that makes it make more sense and Shout out to the Ravens because I love the move I know a lot of people in the last stream were like hashtag petty hardball hashtag hood hardball Hashtag greedy hardball, but I was not mad at it at all Where because the Ravens record was on the line of getting so many games in a row where they get 100 yards rushing and This was the game where they were tied with the Steelers from like the 70s And they were just a little tiny bit short and they it was victory formation time This is their last play so they lined up They had a couple extra blockers on the left side and they ran with Lamar and they kept that record They kept that streak alive, so I loved it. I loved it. I know it's gonna be some people Oh, that's not sportsmanship. I don't even think it was that it's just that they just won They're like, all right, we won a game. So we might as well keep this streak alive, too So I wasn't mad at it at all.  Let's see if you can pass the ball So what did Lamar Jackson and his Ravens offense do? Well, they threw for over 300 yards something that a lot of people say Lamar Jackson couldn't do and They they passed their way to a win Because if this if this game was dependent on a running game Ravens would have lost They would have lost and they would have lost big so Raven showed you That it doesn't just have to be by land. It can be through the air, too And I appreciated that so much. I mean, they showed it last week, too And last week they left a lot of points on the field and this week they left a lot of points on the field too, but overall they got it done and When Lamar Jackson when he has a clean pocket It is one of the most beautiful things ever now. We don't hardly ever get to see it But it is still one of the best things ever And they the Ravens offense in this game Specifically that passing offense Hollywood.  He did have a drop But he did make some nice plays. There was really there was one a really good play on third down It was like third and fourth something like that third and short something like that with Lamar through it to him and Sammy Watkins He turned around and he sort of he went backwards a little bit and I was like, oh, but then he put that hand in the dirt And and he took off man. Well, not took off But he ended up getting the first down he ran backwards and then he cut back up field and he hit that on a pass or 10 the rookie So it was it was nice that Sammy a veteran and you you could tell he's a veteran wide receiver Because he's been making veteran plays literally all season long So I appreciated that about Sammy Watkins a lot Lamar Jackson in this game continued to make very very good decisions There was only one One play where I felt like it was not a good decision And that was when it was toward the end of the game It was like either late in the third quarter or sometime during the fourth quarter stir down the more Jackson scrambling And he ain't got nothing. I mean he's scrambling because the pocket collapsed as usual He had a lot of pressure from the pocket as usual. So he rolled out of the pocket left He said I ain't staying here. So he scrambled to the right He's scratch running toward toward the sideline then at the last second he threw it up and Sammy Watkins he tried to catch it and Sammy Watkins made such a great play on the ball We try to catch it, but the Broncos safety I'm not sure if it was Simmons or it was Stern both of those two are ballers both of those dudes can play man I love those two safeties already knew Simmons was a stud but Stearns. He is too that dude can play But anyway, I forgot which one of those two it was they made Sammy Watkins made a really nice play on the ball But the safety knocked it out of Sammy Watkins hands. So he made an even better play on the ball But that was the only like sort of bad decision. I know it didn't end bad But I just I felt like that definitely wasn't the best decision. But besides that Even including that I mean look Lamar did this thing. He did his thing. He did a had a phenomenal game today Through the year again, just continuing to prove like what all these people say he can't do Also shout out to Lamar shout out to my Twitter profile picture. Mr. Greg Roman Now Greg Roman in this game again The Broncos took away your strength. They took away your bread and butter. They took away what you love The run game But guess what? Jiro he said, oh, I got my boys TT and Kiki with me and They were brought in just in case y'all want to try to take away our running game they were brought in for a reason and We are going to show you again Why they were brought in This passing game has just been excellent this year, man It has been excellent and the thing about it to now There was some questionable play cards with some run plays and there was some obvious ones too But again the shout out to the Broncos defense force making that run game struggle all game long They took away the run game for the most part but um With the thing about this passing game Was that of course your top two guys Hollywood Brown Sammy Watkins. They were involved They were involved throughout the game. They got their catches. They got their yards and whatnot But this will be the game where you would have to get some other guys involved too And of course Mark Andrews as well. He had a good game too, but in this game Devon Duvenay and even more James Proshay They got the other guys involved I know a lot of Ravens fans have been calling and asking for this for the past couple of games I would say all year long But I mean it hasn't been that long but all season long so far a lot of Ravens say hey man Where's Duvenay? Where's Proshay in the passing game and me my response to that was if it ain't broke then don't fix it I mean they they've been active, but they ain't getting they ain't been on the field too much They ain't been getting what most will approach a he been out there a little bit and been catching Well, you catch like a pass a game or something like that, but um This was Proshay's game today And I was happy for him because we we know we all heard the stories and I mean we've seen it too Proshay put in a lot of work He put in a lot of work We always heard about that whole old man The first one here and the last one to leave we hear that about so many people, but Proshay was actually doing it this off season he was actually doing it and All that work that he put in It's it's paying off. It's slowly. It's a process It's a process and it's taking a great amount and a great deal of patience on James Proshay's part But it's certainly been paying off. So that was really nice to see So yeah, that would be our receivers of course Hollywood big bounce back game today That that deep pass on that touch that all that thing was a thing of beauty man and Lamar Jackson Look, I love that Lamar you he wants to take them shots, man He wants to take the shots downfield. He wants that ball going downfield man Lamar now he not looking for no little five y'all pay you're not looking for no six y'all He ain't looking for no three y'all complete. No, he trying to take shots downfield man.  Oh And he also had one negated by a penalty on Andre Smith that touched down to Mark Andrews And that was unfortunate as well But Andre Smith was like look man, I can't let you touch Lamar I can't that'll make me look bad that'll make Lamar take an unnecessary hit Nope, y'all ain't touching Lamar not on this play and it was legitimate holding call So you had a passing game amazing passing game was great loved it Thank you And because this is what we want we wanted to see a team that hey if they can't run the ball Okay, let's pass it then Let's pass it and they've been doing that So shout out to diversity man in your offense. This is exactly what we need it Now speaking of running the ball again the run game with the struggle Latavius Murray in this game. I mean first off the offensive line. Let's start there offensive line It was ugly. They form Ali Honda over in the way, but he ended up getting hurt So he left the game. How about said it ain't nothing serious So Andre Smith, he finished it out for him, but the offensive line in this game It was a struggle man Broncos are bringing it again. Shout out to the Broncos got to give them that credit man Cuz they brought it Ravens offensive line. They just were not blocking they weren't creating much running mini running lanes And as far as past blocking again same story If if they just when we get this offensive line, right? Oh my good if they could if they could get it, right? This offensive line could be a thing of beauty ma'am. Tell you like it y'all know ain't got to tell y'all y'all know Because again when Lamar has time is Even when he doesn't have time he's still been doing good, but when he has time man. Oh My goodness gonna be such a beautiful thing if they get that right this year if they can get this right Oh my goodness and real quick to why we still talking about Lamar in the passing game Shout out to team keep it clean not just y'all cuz y'all know I love y'all but for the Ravens being on team keep it clean because What we would what we've been talking about is we and we said it too that the Ravens They'll finally get a win by double digits if they stop the turnovers they cut down the turnovers They cut out the turnovers not even cut them down come out Lamar Jackson no interceptions Lamar Jackson no fumbles all the running backs no fumbles all the Y receivers no fumbles They'd have a drop, but they were able to overcome that so they cleaned it up and that's big that's huge and While we talking about cleaning it up and speaking of fumbles Tyson Williams He was inactive for this game And I was like really well now we knew LeVion Bell was gonna play we knew the Tavius Murray was gonna play But I figured that Tyson would get the the nod over Freeman for a figure Freeman would be the one that's out. Nope It was Tyson Williams He was on the sideline you tell you he was definitely humbled of course. He would rather be out there, but um I'm sure we'll see him next week after this game One of my guys One of my guys was like this. This is John Harbaugh. Just this the battle of the backups And we'll see we'll see because Tyson obviously been there their lead back so to speak But it is definitely a committee back there because they it ain't like tight Tyson leading in yards But it's not like they are giving him all the RB one snaps I mean they don't even really have a RB one According to how they play Everybody gets a little piece of the pie and LeVion Bell in his debut can't judge him too much because it was his first game So I got to give him a couple games But in his debut as a runner he started to get more and more comfortable as the game went on Obviously ain't break nothing ain't get no big runs anything like that, but nobody did This was not the game for running But LeVion Bell like I can say he got more comfortable, but as a blocker Oh Blocking in the backfield even blocking like duvenday called a pass and LeVion Bell he dropped out I forgot the corner back safety, whatever LeVion Bell made a really nice blocking that was his thing He was blocking nice man And that's what what they brought him in for because of the blocking his hands as a pass catcher And there was a pass that Lamar threw to him But Lamar threw it he threw it a little too too in front of him and again, I think Lamar was just like Oh, LeVion Bell. I thought you a little faster than that. You know, we got a high-paced fast offense You got to bring some more speed. So LeVion Bell you got it. You got to cut out like You got to cut out one fast one fast food meal this week so you can get that speed up Just a little bit. I mean if you want you can send it to me. I eat it But anyway So LeVion Bell overall, I mean again is his first game So can't really judge it too much Especially because again the run blocking was just bad pass blocking was just bad so Latavious Murray He's been continuing doing the same stuff he is a he just seems to be a Four to five yard running back He'll break one for like maybe eight occasionally maybe eight or nine. Oh But he's just straight up the middle get the tough yards grind it out Um Somebody in the stream mentioned. He's a really good compliment to Tyson Williams and I agree with that They do trust him. He holds on to the ball. So that's big But yeah, he and he usually falls forward now. They tried to bounce him to the outside, but Broncos weren't having that they were like, ah, nah, we ain't going for this So shout out to I mean they let any of the Ravens runners with a Lamar with a like Latavious Murray ain't let nobody run to the outside at all. They weren't having I mean they barely let him run up the middle So they again shout out to their defense because it is real and it is very good But yeah, Latavious Murray just continue to do what he do got his touchdown like he's usually been doing for most of the games I think in three or three or four of the games He got a touchdown think the only game he ain't get a touchdown was against the Lions But other than that he keep getting them. So that's always a good thing because when you score points, that's that's beautiful Devontae Freeman, he wasn't really out there too much That's why that's why I just really figured that if they were gonna deactivate somebody it was gonna be him If there's gonna be somebody that was inactive at a running backs. It was gonna be him. So we'll see what happens next week Mark Andrews getting a good game nice catches He didn't have any drops. So that was good because this was a big game.  I know it's early. It just seems like like every game Ravens been playing has been a big game That's what it feels like every game has been a big game. Now. Um, real quick before I forget this game actually Mark Lamar Jackson Including playoffs. He is the fastest quarterback to beat every team except his own to beat every single team He became the fastest quarterback to do that and I think the the original fastest Was Patrick Mahomes, but now not anymore So shout out to Lamar Jackson for breaking yet another record because he I mean he been breaking plenty of records Ever since he came into the league But that one record that we want Lamar Jackson to break into get out. We talked about it anyway So that that was good that the Ravens were able to Accomplish that so that would be that would be your offense Again, they did leave some points on the field. There were a lot of drives. They will be moving and then they would just Then they be moving and then they would just stop Okay, all right. Well, let's just hope they do better next drive and that leads us to We'll do special teams real quick. Justin Tucker shout out to him Kick the couple of field goals made him. They was talking about how he was kicking 70 yards He made a 70 yard in pre game, but he didn't get a chance to attempt that So shout out to never that boy is crazy man, but he is real deal Sam cook. He had a very very busy day He was healthy a lot a lot more than we wanted him to be but it's all good Devon Duvenay Devon Duvenay had a questionable decision that he made where he Downed a punt like on a five or six yard line and he probably should have let it bounce I know it is hard. We looking at it from a fans perspective. We looking at it from a TV screen It's a lot easier for us to be like, oh, he should have done this He should have done that when him he got the ball coming at him He got 11 Broncos coming at him trying to knock him out So it's a lot harder to make decisions like that But he certainly made up for it later on in the game He got a really nice point return that set the Ravens up to get a field go right before halftime I actually set them up to get a touchdown, but they didn't get a touchdown But they end up getting a field go right before halftime. So he did this thing and the They're covered junior on on special teams on punts and kickoffs. It was pretty good, too They didn't let they didn't let the Broncos break for any long was anything like that now defense Defense Teddy Bridgewater He started this game off Didn't make any bad decisions Didn't have any almost interceptions He's making good decisions as usual didn't turn the ball over as usual I actually need a team got a turnover Neither one Ravens didn't get a turnover Broncos didn't get a turnover So they both played a very clean football game and this game went by really fast Super fast, but somebody who also went by super fast was a doubt fair against the Broncos right tackle where he sacked Teddy Bridgewater and that was a nasty sec. That was a big hit and then later on He was the one that took out Teddy Bridgewater on a big hit that he gave to him So doubt fair way. He was active. He was getting after it and we were just very very pleased with him as we have been Because he's he's been making noise man. He has been making some noise I guess he just love AFC West games off of him Going against AFC West opponents. We don't already went against three because we went against the Raiders the Chiefs and the Broncos So charges game. Hey Adafi.  He had a sack. I think Ravens had five sacks So away Bowser BK Man, I cannot remember the other two but either way shout out to the Ravens for holding it down and they were getting pressure to the quarterbacks They were getting some QB hits and whatnot and I do like that the rest were letting them play They weren't calling none of that old rough in the past They did have some funny business calls though, but as far as the quarterback hits they will let them do their thing secondary Shout out to Anthony Avert man Clamp Clampington he has been quiet He's been doing this thing and again as far as Marcus Peters We love Marcus Peters and it sucks that he's out of sucks that it had to happen this way But with Anthony Avert, he's filled in very well. He's filled in very well, and he is not Marcus Peters We know high-risk high reward. He's a risk taker. He's his own corner Not really not not a man corner, but he's a playmaker, but with Marcus Peters. He takes that risk He'll he'll be jumping receivers routes and stuff trying to get picks But Anthony Avert he him and Marlon Humphrey. They play it more safe They just stick to that man. That's it. They ain't jumping no routes For a pick for them. It has to be a right place right time kind of thing But that that works good on this defense and it cuts down on the big plays that you could possibly give up So yeah, he's he's been a really really good fit Marlon Humphrey He had he had a good game overall. He did have that play and he talked about it on Twitter He said man, he said I got dragged 20 yards on one play But that that was just that that drive that drive by the Ravens defense where they did just were not tackling that drive It's a beautiful thing because I gotta give a shout out to wink and our Ravens defense because they gave up the points That one that was it they gave up that one touchdown drive. That was it Never looked back Never look back and shout out to adjustments back to G-Roll real quick Shout out to the fact that the Broncos took away to run G-Roll and that offense they adjusted they made adjustments that passing game did his thing Shout out to a wink. They took away everything from the Broncos Broncos got that touchdown and wrinkles like hold up No, not again. Y'all remember when I was a defensive coordinator here and I'll off I mean our defense was ranked like 32nd or 35th. They would ring some bad. I I ain't had the right pieces now I do and Real quick shout out to this team because as you all know we have so many people that are hurt and the fact that these Do still put up fights like they do they still like they are a couple and I know it sucks looking back And but they are a couple of plays away From being undefeated And I know they're not undefeated and in some of these games a lot of these plays could have went the other way They could be a couple of plays away from being one in three but It's just nice knowing that these guys They are close man despite all the injuries. They are close Jimmy Smith because the Sean Elliott was out Jimmy Smith plays some safety Brandon Steven plays some safety of course Gino Stone he plays some safety they mix it up a bit and They I can't say they didn't miss the Sean Elliott because he brings that thump But Chuck Clark was like I the Sean Elliott. I got you when he whacked a Spencer number 11 from the Broncos I was like, I know I'd never seen Chuck Clark do a hit like that ever Well, may it made me when our time is swung on. I'm probably back then but besides that No, never seen Chuck Clark do a hit like that. I was like wow, man. That's crazy. That boy Chuck Clark came through So it was nice to see and Chuck Clark's been playing pretty good. He's been playing pretty good In the defense again, obviously the things are clicking with them Well in this game they were But and again the the Broncos they had never seen a team like the Ravens before and the teams that they face again They can only play who's on their schedule, but the teams that they face were defeated at the time Before today they hadn't won any games, but the Jets and the Giants they both won today. So the teams that they faced are two and Four Three three so two and ten Collectively But again, they can only play who's on their schedule Patrick Queen, you know what I really didn't I think they miss one tag. I'm not sure I really didn't Notice Patrick Queen in this game. I saw he didn't make some nice tackles now But I didn't really like notice notice him like that. He didn't make any big plays Oh, he did have one nice play in pass coverage on a goal line toward the end of the game It was a couple plays before the Anthony Avery pick I believe well drew lock through to either tight end or tight end or see I forgot what it was But drew lock through to him and Patrick Queen slapped it away. So no, you ain't about to catch this on me No, not happening Who else Kaleas Campbell got a little push, but I didn't really notice him in this game either So it's hard for a lot of the fight for a lot of players unless they like really do some especially watching it live And especially with why we doing a live stream. It could be hard to notice exactly what some people do for me But yeah, I guess that that was that man. This was a really really good game I thought the Ravens were gonna win By like four points or something like that. I guess you just get so used to the craziness Then you just expect the craziness, but we actually got to have a calm Sunday evening Tonight well when you seeing this it'll have been last night, but yeah, man, it was just it was nice This was a good game. This was a game where everybody came through for each other the offense once they finally woke up because they Will sleep for a while Once they finally woke up they start coming through I wish they would have come through more consistently because the Ravens would have got a lot more points But it's the game of football again You got to give a shout out to Broncos defense because they are legitimate So Ravens offense they showed up when they did Ravens defense They showed up all game besides one drive and the special teams unit. They played their part as well They showed up to so good game good complete game The running back situation again Tyson Williams. Yeah, he'll he'll be back next week. He's got to be Anyway, I love y'all team keep it clean. I appreciate y'all so much Thank you for watching the game with us We had a lot of fun in the live stream like we do every week. So next up is the Colts And they're gonna bring their own set of challenges as every team does but Ravens They're gonna do the same with them. Anyway, I appreciate y'all. I love y'all and We out


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