- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let'’s be healthy together.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Here when you need us most.

Valley Bank.

Seton Hall University.

Showing the world what great minds can do since 1856.

New Jersey'’s Clean Energy program.

Lighting the way to a clean energy future.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

PSE&G, committed to providing safe, reliable energy now and in the future.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

And by PSC.

Where your story is our business.

Promotional support provided by NJBIZ.

Providing business news for New Jersey for more than 30 years, online, in print, and in person.

And by NJ.Com.

Keeping communities informed and connected.

- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of yesterday.

- I'’m hopeful that this is the beginning to accountability.

- Life without dance is boring.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I did do the finale, and guess where my trailer was?

A block away from my apartment, it couldn'’t have been better!

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

-_ It'’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it'’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) (upbeat jazz music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato and I'm clearly overdressed for this segment, we are honored to be joined by Emmet Cohen, leader of the Emmet Cohen Trio and jazz pianist and composer.

Check it out, Emmet Cohen, Uptown in Orbit.

We just listened to a little bit of that.

Emmet, how you doing?

- I'm great, Steve.

It's nice to see you, a fellow New Jerseyan here.

So I feel the kinship.

- Wait a minute, where are you from originally?

- Originally I was born in Miami, Florida, but I went to high school in Montclair, New Jersey, middle school, - Montclair.

- So.

- That's my town.

It's a great town, it's a great artistic town as well.

- It is.

Hey, tell folks about this CD.

- Uptown and Orbit, we released it in October.

It's kind of our final project I would like to say from the pandemic time.

During the pandemic, we had a live stream called Live From Emmet's Place.

That started out as just something that we did on the phone, ended up reaching millions of people worldwide and, - How?

I'm curious about that.

I'm curious about what connects, what doesn't, and why.

What do you think triggered, what do you think connected.

- I think that jazz is meant to bring people together and we were missing that aspect of life very heavily in March, 2020.

So we ended up doing this live stream.

We invited everyone into our living room virtually and it took off across the world.

And I just got back from Korea.

People said, "I've watched all 103 episodes."

There, "Everything was great, you saved us during the pandemic."

So it was this cool way to connect the world in that time.

And we're doing it right from Harlem and there's a history of Harlem rent party.

So 100 years ago they were doing this right on the same very block that I live, and Duke Ellington lived right on that street.

There's a lot of mythology and I think that's part of what helped to take off as well.

- Let me ask you about this.

We do a series called "Remember Them", which is, it features people who have, are no longer with us but made a great impact and Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie and a whole range of other people being featured.

Harlem is a huge part of that, particularly when you talk about the arts community and jazz.

How did you wind up in Harlem?

- I moved to Harlem when I decided I wanted to move to New York City.

You know, you look around where people are living and where the jazz musicians are, it's either Brooklyn or Harlem.

And if you choose Brooklyn, then you go for the tattoo and the mustaches.

And if you go to Harlem, it's a little more, (laughs) it's a little different vibe, but I ended up there.

I went to Manhattan School of Music, which is a college up on 122nd Street so that helped me enter there.

But I have a whole community up there, so many different kinds of artists.

And it's just like a real fertile place especially I noticed during the pandemic.

- Hmm.

What is the Master Legacy series?

- I believe that there is not enough intergenerational play in life.

I think it's one of the things that jazz helps us with and teaches us is that the relationship between the generations is really, really important.

And so I got to know a couple of jazz masters and I realized in order to carry this music forward I would need to spend time around the oldest living jazz musicians.

Play with Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie and Billie Holiday, and were around all that.

So I decided to create a forum where I could bring my entire generation together with 80 and 90 year old musicians, play with them, record with them, interview them, learn from them, and then be able to pass the baton, which I, now I'm 32 and there's musicians under me which I'm able to share that information with as well.

So it's the cycle of life.

- Emmet, I'm curious about this.

You're not just a great musician but, how many do, a hundred and how many live streams?

- We did 103, two hour live streams so far.

- So there's a lot of conversation going on.

Your skills as a public communicator outside of the way you communicate with your music, you're really good.

Where does that come from?

- I think it comes from loving people and wanting to see humanity be more connected and be better as a whole.

And through my music, I've realized that when we travel people take their lone Saturday night to come out and see us.

They've been working all week.

All they're looking for is that connection, to see something great, - Right.

- something that means something more to them.

And music is the perfect mirror, and music and communication.

So if I can communicate to these people and help them see part of themselves to either grow, become a different person or a better person, or to help them in some way in their lives, we're healers.

That's what we do as communicators.

- You know, it's one thing to ask you about your communication skills and your love of people, but to develop what you did during the pandemic Emmet, to create those live streams, to create this audience, to be able to make a living, to be able to put a trio together, to market it, to get it out into the marketplace.

You're an entrepreneur as well.

I'm fascinated by the work of those who are in the arts.

I like to, again, I keep calling this media arts but then there's really art and then there's this, what I do.

But if you're not an entrepreneur, I always wonder how people think they're going to get their stuff out there if you are not, I'll get off my soapbox, an incredibly committed entrepreneur, you are.

- Yeah, I realized when I first started touring and bringing my trio out, we played in the piano store in Chicago for six people.

And I said, if I don't change something we're gonna be playing for six people forever.

And one of the things that I started to do was collect information, collect email addresses, collect.

Everyone who said, "Good job."

I would just kind of try to stay in touch.

And that's really what social media is.

It's people that are interested in what you're doing.

They wanna stay in touch with you, they want to hear from you and if you maintain that relationship in whatever form that is.

Then when the pandemic happened, I was able to kind of of reach out and say, "Hey, we're doing these projects."

Was able to crowdsource a little bit, raise money each week, sponsorship for these things.

And you know, what helped me really buckle down and do it was that it wasn't only for me, it was for all these musicians who needed it really badly in this time when our calendar was completely cleared and it was like, what are we gonna do now?

Well, we're gonna do what we know how to do best which is play music and then all the other stuff can come in that entrepreneurial fashion.

- Well, we're glad that you're a great entrepreneur, a great communicator, but especially a terrific musician and an artist.

Emmet Cohen, the leader of the Emmet Cohen Trio, jazz pianist composer, Uptown in Orbit, check it out.

This is part of our Arts Connection series.

Emmet, wish you all the best, thank you.

- Steve, thank you so much, it's great to be here.

And I wanna invite you up to the house in Harlem sometime.

You gotta come by and check out one of our shows.

- I don't have to dress up like this, right?

- You can wear whatever you'd like.

- I just wanna make sure, next time do me a favor, wear a suit.

Nah, I'm joking.

(Emmet laughs) You look great, I can't pull that off, you can.

Thanks, stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- Do you know the last time anybody asked me?

All of these questions that this lady asked me?

And first of all, she was like, she cold emails me and she's like, "Pinky, I have a mommy podcast.

I would love to interview you."

I was like, "how did you know I'm a mom?

- Crowd laughter.

- How many videos did you have to go through to realize that my roommates are my family members?

How many videos?"

- We have her.

She's a TikTok sensation and she's got 5 million followers there.

64 million likes.

TikTok.

She's outta control.

Pinky Patel, comedian, TikTok sensation.

Georgette.

You get credit for this.

You found, not that she's hard to find.

Set this up.

Why do we have - I, along with millions and millions of people out there, love Pinky.

And I was so thrilled when she said "yes" cause I know she's touring, and we just, we just wanted to have you on and have you talk about, how you became Pinky Patel, comedian star.

- Well, I mean, hi.

Hello, my friends.

Pinky Patel here.

How did I get started?

I don't, I just got really fed up with my roommates and I decided to make videos and post them on social media.

And here we are, 2.5 years later and I just, I can't believe this is what my life is now.

I actually should be in probably some sort of corporate meeting at a corporate job that I no longer have.

What what?

(laughter) - So, wait a minute.

Set up, the tiara comes-- What is the significance?

- Well, so I made this one video explaining something to a man, and I, my followers started calling back - Back up.

- I have to preface.

I have to preface, I have to.

So I was explaining something which is very real for us women, for shenanigan times.

And, at the end, I put this little comb in my hair, smooth as silk.

And I was proud of myself cause I'm not smooth.

I'm very clumsy.

I have nicks all over my body, because I can't, I don't know how to walk.

And at the end I said, I said what I said, and then a week later, followers kept sending me real crowns.

They're like, girl, you need a bigger crown.

That's not big enough.

You told him how it is.

You Pinky-splained it and I love you.

- Hold on, you what?

- Pinky-splained it.

I Pinky-splain things.

So, I over explain things like how men mansplain.

I Pinky-splain.

- You're killing me.

Georgette, pick it up from there please.

- So, Pinky, where people hear that you have roommates they might not get that whole association.

Can you fill us in on that?

- And I love it.

I love it.

Which is why I started calling my family members my roommates because I'm that person that is super sarcastic, super dark humor.

And that was kind of my way of just letting the frustration out.

Well, yeah, I'm not gonna call you family members.

I'll call you my roommates.

Okay?

And so, here we are.

It's my husband, my two kids, my dog, my in-laws, everybody and anybody who wants to live in the Patel household.

You're my roommate.

- Pinky, I'm curious about this before Georgette comes back in.

I'm curious.

- Okay.

- So you, you're in Chicago, right?

- Yep, Chicago.

- And you like the Cubs, White Sox.

You can only pick one, right?

Do you care?

- Right.

I mean, I love everybody equally.

- Oh, what are you running for office?

(laughter) Are you running for the US Senate in Illinois, what is that?

- We're a Cubs family through and through.

We have been a Cubs family since my husband touched down here in America.

So, Cubs.

- Okay, you got it.

I'm a Yankee fan.

My condolences to you.

So, in all seriousness, was it your corny question?

Dream to be as popular an entertainer as you are?

- I've always, when I was younger, I've always wanted to be famous.

But it wasn't a reality from, you know, the time that I grew up, the being Indian there was just no space for us in Hollywood back then.

And so, I kind of put that on the back burner.

And then, this came about out of frustration.

And the goal was never to get all of these followers and then to start this secondary career.

It was just to have fun.

And so, I mean, I was telling Georgette earlier, It's, I'm very lucky and I understand that I'm super lucky that this happened, right?

Like, this doesn't happen to normal people everywhere.

And so, I thank whoever I need to from the universe to all 1 million deities I'm supposed to pray to.

I'm like, thank goodness this happened.

Because I don't know if I would never be able to fulfill my 10 year old dream of being famous otherwise.

- I love it.

Georgette.

- You know, I wonder too, Pinky, I mean you go from the corporate suburban PTA mom to now going out on tour.

Like, how do you make that shift?

How do you make that adjustment?

- It takes a full team.

I know going back to Steve's it sounds corny, but it does, it takes all of us.

- We, PS, we have a great team all over doing great work.

- You do.

- I'm sorry.

Pick it up, Pinky.

- No, it just, it takes a lot of people.

You guys know, in order to have a successful production.

It's not a one man show ever.

It's, I'm just the face of it, right?

I have a whole team behind me from a manager, to a talent agency, to a social media manager, to my husband, to my kids who are very understanding, to my in-laws, who, you know, they're traditional Indian in-laws they're traditional boomer parents, Indian parents.

And so they're, they could be like, what are you doing?

You shouldn't be going out and doing this.

Girls don't do this.

But they're just like, go have fun.

And I'm like, yes, I won the lotto.

- Do they get your-- - Oh, sorry.

- I'm sorry, Georgette.

I'm sorry.

I'm curious.

I'll have you come back.

Did, but I'm curious, do your in-laws get your humor?

- They don't understand the humor just cause of the language barrier.

But they did come to my first Chicago show here, after like, when I came back a year later.

And they, just the fact that they saw all of the people that were there for me my, actually, my 9 year old son at that time he opened for me.

And so they got to see their grandson on stage.

- And, - How great.

- My mother-in-law, right?

My mother-in-law comes up to me the next day.

She's like, how did you talk for 75 minutes without drinking any water?

I would be so tired.

I was like, mom, I got this.

This is what I do on a normal basis.

She's like, oh my God.

- How great.

- So, they love it.

They're very proud.

- They should be.

- That's great.

And I, and I was wondering too, Pinky, that first, do you remember the first show like, when you went from, it's very different, right?

Being on TikTok and then stepping out and seeing all these people out there.

What were those feelings?

What was that sensation when you did that?

- I was terrified.

I was terrified.

I, we used to be, so growing up, you know we used to do a lot of, or during Diwali parties, we would have choreographed dances and little groups of kids would do dances and my mom would force me just like, you know you have dance teams here, like, dance explosion and all that, and you have the dance recitals, right?

Our version was the Diwali parties.

And every time, no joke, I, like everybody else would be going left on stage and I'm going right.

And I was that person and I hated it.

I did it to make her proud.

I hated it.

I hate, like, I cannot my hips don't move like a Bollywood dancer's hips.

I don't have hips, I have leg tops.

It just doesn't work, right?

And so, you just can't, I just, I don't move like that unless I have extracurricular stuff in my body.

Let's just say that.

And so, - I'm leaving it alone.

But you got up there and you did it.

- I got up there and I did it and it was the best high in the world.

Like, if, like, you know how people are like, you should just do whatever you're scared of doing.

It's, it'll be okay.

Now I'm on board with that.

I'm on board with that mentality.

Before I was like, why would you do things that scare you?

Just sit at home, and roll up into a burrito blanket and watch Netflix.

It's fine.

Don't leave the house.

Now I'm like, go do it.

Go jump off the cliff.

Safely.

Go bungee jump.

Safely.

- Pinky, I gotta tell you.

First of all, Georgette, thank you for finding Pinky and bringing her to us.

And Pinky, thank you for bringing your humor, your personality, your incredibly positive attitude.

And PS, this is part of our series on One-on-One, simply called, Georgette we're calling it "What's So Funny?"

- What's so funny?

Yeah.

She's funny.

- That's funny right there.

Hey Pinky, we wish you all the best.

- Thank you.

Thank you guys for having me.

It was fun.

- Awesome.

- That's Georgette, that's Pinky.

And they're funny and I'm not.

I know what's funny.

(laughter) We'll be right back after this.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- Our good friend, John Schreiber, is back in the house, not our house, but his house, but you know, the virtual house.

President and CEO of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center otherwise known as NJPAC.

Good to see you, John.

- Same to you, sir.

Lovely to see you too, even virtually.

- Yeah.

And all kinds of great things happening in NJPAC.

Go on their website to find out more.

The information will come up.

But today, John, we're not plugging NJPAC.

Philip Roth- - Ah.

- It's one of my many Roth books.

- Okay.

- This is actually a book written by Claudia Roth Pierpont.

- Right.

- You have, you and your team at NJPAC, have Philip Roth Unbound coming up March 17th to March 19th.

This will be seen before and after, doing in collaboration with the great folks at the Newark Public Library, where, in fact, Philip Roth donated all of his work to that library.

Hey John, what's this Roth Unbound thing all about?

- It's a chance for us to examine, and celebrate, and illuminate, you know, the work of this remarkable novelist who, as you know, I think was probably the most important voice in fiction in the last 75 years.

We think about the great novelist, American novelist, who came to our attention at, you know, in the last century, beginning of this century.

You think of Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, Bernard Malamud, John O'Hara, John Updike, et cetera, et cetera.

Roth is still read as much today as he was when he was in his writing prime.

He wrote 27 novels in his lifetime, and he was a Newark boy.

He was born in the Weequahic section.

He went to Weequahic High School.

He used Newark as a canvas for a lot of what he wrote.

So there's a lot of Newark in Roth and we thought it would be really fun to, on the occasion of his, what would've been his 90th birthday, celebrate that work and examine that work with more than a dozen events over the course of a weekend from the 17th to 19th of March.

- All kinds of events.

And John will talk more in detail about those events.

There gonna be writers, actors, artists, journalists, public intellectuals, all kinds of folks, historians.

But help folks understand this, John.

We actually did, if you look on our website, steveadubato.org, you'll see a past segment we did with a representative from the Newark Public Library, on Roth.

And so I wanna make sure people understand this, John, it wasn't just the Weequahic section of Newark it was also the strong Jewish community in Newark at that time that Roth grew up in.

How important were those Jewish roots to Roth as a person and as a writer?

- I mean, Roth wasn't a religious person he wasn't an observant Jew, but he was a cultural Jew.

You know.

- Define that for folks.

- Well, it's- - I'm a cultural Catholic, so go ahead.

- It's the food, it's the food it's the comedy, it's the family.

It's, I mean, it's all those things, you know, it's things that, it's things that those of us who define, you know, who identify as Catholic, any number of, you know.

Religion is so much more than observance, you know, it's- - It is culture.

- Yeah, yeah.

So Roth, I think, was a cultural Jew, you know, Jewish culture sort of informed a lot of his writing, you know, whether it's "Portnoy's Complaint" or, you know, or "Patrimony," or "American Pastoral," you know, he looked at the world through eyes that he knew and that was the Jewish experience, to a reasonable extent.

- "Goodbye Columbus" in there?

- Oh, sure.

- Yeah.

- Absolutely.

- Yeah, I mean- - First one I read.

- Well, and one of the first ones he wrote, you know, that goes back to 1958, you know?

In fact, if you think about Roth in the movies, of all the movies that were made of Roth books that was the one he liked the best.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Interesting, it was Rich.

You remember, it was Richard Benjamin.

- Richard Benjamin?

Oh my God, what a great character.

Who else played with him?

- Ali MacGraw was the other- - Oh.

- She played the female lead.

- That's pre "Love Story."

- Oh yeah, totally.

Pre "Love Story."

Yeah, absolutely.

- Will the movies, the books that were turned into movies, part of the Roth Unbound experience at NJPAC?

- No, we're not screening any movies.

What we are doing is we're gonna do a full reading of a bridge for the stage of the "Plot Against America" which will have nine actors, including Tony Shalhoub and- - Is John Turturro in that?

- Turturro was on Sunday.

We're doing, we commissioned Turturro and Ariel Levy of The New Yorker to do a stage adaptation of "Sabbath's Theater," which was Ross's favorite book.

Are you, is that one that you are familiar with?

- Have it right In my Roth Library.

- Yeah.

So that was Roth's favorite book.

It is hilarious, it's disgusting.

I mean, it's everything you love best about Roth, and John turned it into a play, and he's gonna do a scene from it on the Sunday night of the festival, which would've been Ross's 90th- - 90th.

- I'm curious, Roth, controversial, no doubt, controversial, no doubt wrote and said things, sometimes about women, that would not play today on any level.

To what degree does the Roth Unbound exhibit, series, weekend Festival at NJPAC, deal with how incredibly controversial Roth was?

- It actually does.

- It does?

- Yeah.

We wanted to make sure that the harsher sides of Roth also got a chance to be exposed and illuminated.

So, you know, we have a panel that is called, What Gives You the Right?

And it's a conversation about the ethics of representation identity, the limits of artistic freedom in fiction.

We have another one where we talk about Roth in relation to American history.

Roth was a great historian.

If you read the books, as you do, you know that American history sort of informed a lot of what he did, so we're talking about that.

We're gonna do a Philip Roth bus tour of Newark that Liz del Tufo- - The Great Liz del Tufo.

- Exactly.

The- - Knows Newark better than anyone.

- And lemme tell you, the Philip Roth bus tour is, we have two of them, they sold out immediately.

They're the first things to sell out, you know.

- Is it going through Roth's old neighborhood?

- Yeah, the whole, every place that was important to Roth and every stop along the way, there'll be a reading from some Roth novel that is cited in the, you know, in the Newark thing.

So we're doing a night at Hobby's.

- Roth was a big comedy fan, he loved standup comics, he loved the Borscht Belt.

So this is a sort of tip of our hat to that, and we'll have all the noshes and we'll have three stand ups working- - Did you say noshes?

Did you just say noshes?

- I did say the word noshess, it's correct.

(both laugh) - I'm verklempt.

(both laugh) - You know, I don't get a lot of chances to say the word noshes, so thank you, you know?

- But is it appropriate if I say I'm verklempt?

Is that the right word right now?

- Sure, sure.

You can get away with that.

Yeah, sure.

(Steve laughs) - Listen, that is John Schreiber, the great, the CEO, President at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

Philip Roth Unbound, March 17th to March 19th, and done in collaboration with the Newark Public Library where Roth's work lives.

Check out all John's work at the NJPAC.

Not just the Roth stuff, but the other stuff.

Good to see you, my friend.

- Likewise, stay well, please.

Thank you.

- You got it.

That guy's good and NJPAC's the best.

See you next time, everyone.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let'’s be healthy together.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Valley Bank.

Seton Hall University.

New Jersey'’s Clean Energy program.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

PSE&G, The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

And by PSC.

Promotional support provided by NJBIZ.

And by NJ.Com.

- Did you know you can save money by saving the environment?

New Jersey'’s Clean Energy Program offers incentives, programs and services that benefit New Jersey residents and businesses, as well as educational, government and non-profit entities, helping us save money, energy and the environment.

Learn more at njcleanenergy.com or call 866 NJ Smart.

New Jersey'’s Clean Energy Program.

Lighting the way to a clean energy future.