¡Colores!; 1933; Improv Comedian Lauren Poole, Director Ricki Stern, International Champion Jump Roper Adrienn Bánhegyi, Photographer Daniel Rebert

THIS TIME, ON COLORES! ACTRESS AND IMPROV COMEDIAN, ALBUQUERQUE'S LAUREN POOLE SHARES HER THOUGHTS BEHIND CREATING HER COMIC CHARACTER LYNETTE AND THE THINGS THAT Sometimes with comedy the best stuff is going to ah, ya know, make some people uncomfortable or makepeople realize.. oh my gosh, that's me. DIRECTOR OF THE DOCUMENTARY KNUCKLEBALL, RICKI STERN, EXPLORES ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT PITCHES IN THE GAME OF BASEBALL. You need the fingertips of a safe cracker and the mind INTERNATIONAL CHAMPION JUMP ROPER, ADRIENN BANHEGYI, SAW A CIRQUE DU SOLEIL PERFORMANCE ON TELEVISION AND DECIDED A CAREER ON STAGE WAS NEXT. For me the hardest part was the transition, to learn how

to express myself and how to find a connection with the audience, so they can have as much fun as I do when I'm doing it. PHOTOGRAPHER DANIEL REBERT FOUND THAT HIS ART HAS MADE HIM A BETTER PERSON. I know that I can't take anything for granted. I have to be in the moment. Especially when taking photos, I have to give it all I have. IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES! BURQUENO LAUREN POOLE SHARES HOW HER COMEDY COMES FROM A GENUINE PLACE. >>Lauren Poole: Omber. Si. Yeah I know, huh? A la maquina! Can you see

my drawing? I need my pillow.I think I need a crayon to do this good. I need like a sandwich or a hamburger or some milk. Are you gonna get down from the car or what? You're all mad or what? Are we going or no? I miss the beach,like, do you remember the black hole? Wait, you have to pay to park here? What do you mean Marty Chavez ain't the mayor no more? He's like always the mayor. Do you want a coke? Do you want a coke? Doyou want a coke? Do you want a coke? I'm gonna get like a zia symbol right here, with like green chiles crisscrossed. >>Hakim Bellamy: Guest Lauren Poole in the Colores studio. How are you doing today? >>Poole: Good, how are you? >>Bellamy: I'm well, I'm well. So as a comedian, and especially a comedian who in context and the context is culture, how do you do that in a way that's also sensitive to people's cultural identity?

>>Poole: This character came from a place of me growing up here. I've never lived anywhere else. We just wanted funny and relevant to us. So I guess the way that I would feel is good and sensitive or whatever, the right way, is creating something that you're genuinely inspired to create from an honest place. So when we did the video it was just, you know, a character that felt very real and people, you know, already really liked her. You know, sometimes with comedy thebest stuff is going to, you know, make some people a little bit uncomfortable or make people realize oh my gosh, that's me. I wonder how that arrow landed up there? We landed up going to Brianna's house. Save the cans for Cliff's. Remember to pick me up some Blake's. Can we go to Sonics? For cereals. EEEEEEEEEEE. Oo la la. That's like French for eeee.

>>Bellamy: There's other shows that are filmed here, there's other things that are filmed here, and it's not necessarily that we as a city, or a state, identify with those characters. We don't assume that Walter White is representative of Albuquerque, but people assume Lynette is this kind of iconicfigure. >>Poole: When we first created the Lynette character, the very first video we made was a job interview situation where all of these candidates are coming in and interviewing for a job. The way we set up we were like OK so everybody just come in with a character and you'll all get the same questions and you're just going to improv through the interview and just give whatever answers you think your character would give. So I thought it would be really cool to come in with like a chola character who might look like maybe she's mean or maybe she's a little bit hard or maybe she's kind of tough andmaybe she's kind of uneducated. These things that we assume about people that look like Lynette look and sort of dress like how she dresses. But then the chola ended up being very honest and very

real and the best person for the job. And she got the job. So one of the things that I really love about Lynette, and was conscious of, was thatshe looks like people think Oh that's how gangsters look.. And it's like no. Not everybody wearing a hoodie, in light of recent events especially, but not everybody wearing a hoodie or baggy pants ora lot of makeup is uneducated or mean. Lynette is silly and she's, like, cool. >>Bellamy: Absolutely. So did you know you always wanted to be a comedian? Poole: Yeah only recently I realized Oh! That's something that I can do pretty well. And I really love doing it. I love when it rains. I think it stopped. My rims spin. I'm turning. >>Bellamy: What experiences from your childhood really find their way into your comedy? Like, could you give us a couple of examples?

Poole: I guess, you know, like Lynette is mimicking the whole way that people talk around here sometimes. Oooh forget it. Not even. The mountains look all cool with snow. Welcome to Monroe's may I help you? Hey let's go to 711. I can't get this button. Where's my yellow jacket? Miss, hang on, Miss you forgot your bag. You're welcome. I guess I started because I was good at mimicking when I was little. We were visiting family when Iwas like five, and this woman, like a third cousin or something, was talking to her husband. And she was like Billy Ray you want some pie? And when I was five I heard that and I just mimicked it likeBilly Ray you want some pie? And all the grownups stopped and started laughing at me, and that was the first time my brain went like Oh. I just did something funny

and the grownups liked it. >>Bellamy: You talked a little bit before about your process for creating material and you prefer towork more in a collaborative process. Can you talk a little more about that? >>Poole: Some people I know, they can go and work by themselves and come back and be like Here I have this one woman show. I need to find my stuff through bouncing it off of people that I really love and trust. It's more fun, it's just more fun that way. You don't feel like you're working. Some of the most fun I've had is with Blackout and we've done comedy shows as a team and we're like OK what are the things that people say? And then we put on our Facebook to our friends and fans Hey guys, give us some of your best New Mexicanisms. And that's where I'm too drunk to walk, let's drive came from; that was a friend of ours. I'm too drunk to walk, let's drive. And then some stuff I just

improvise. Shut the light. Thank you. >>Bellamy: Tell me what Lynette was like as a child. >>Poole: Lynette was a very precocious child. I feel like Lynette grew up around a lot of siblings and a lot of family and in Albuquerque. She would maybe get into trouble sometimes for talking or fordoing not necessarily new things but like Let's climb this fence and throw mud at the wall or weirdthings. >>Bellamy: Because that's fun. >>Poole: Yeah. >>Bellamy: So, what's in Lynette's future? What does she want to do? What does she want to be when she grows up? >>Poole: I feel like Lynette is really interested in criminology and sociology, and that Lynette is going to be a hotshot detective that solves crimes in unconventional ways. >>Bellamy: She might have

a reality show? >>Poole: Yeah. Like a weird CSI. >>Bellamy: Well that's awesome. Maybe next time we can get an interview with Lynette. She was busy. >>Poole: She is really busy with state fair stuff. >>Bellamy: Thank you for hanging out with us Lauren. >>Poole: Yeah. >>Poole: Bueno bye. Viejra, look. Nada, you? This is all sick. You're all tall huh? I know, I know, and oh hang on there's a cop. Hang on, hang on he's still there, he's RICKI STERN'S DOCUMENTARY KNUCKLEBALL! EXPLORES THE MYSTERY AND TECHNIQUE BEHIND THIS INFAMOUS PITCH. >>Steve Adubato: There she is, Ricki Stern, codirector of the film Knuckleball! How are you doing? >>Ricki Stern: I'm good, thanks, I'm good. >>Adubato: By the way, set up Knuckleball! for us. We're about to see a clip from it. Knuckleball! is a film about -

>>Stern: It is a film about this quirky, esoteric pitch that's called the knuckleball. Now there's only one in Major League Baseball who throws the knuckleball, R.A. Dickey. >>Adubato: Out in Queens? >>Stern: Yes, yes, for the Mets, yes. >>Adubato: Pretty great pitcher. >>Stern: He's a great pitcher, he's up for the Cy Young Award. I hope he gets it. But the year we followed, 2011, R.A. Dickey, it was his first year with the twoyear contract in the Major Leagues as a knuckleball pitcher, and it was Tim Wakefield's potentially last year with the Red Sox. And the film is really not just about baseball, it's about the people who look to reinvent themselves and theygo to this quirky pitch that not many people have thrown historically in baseball that's considereda trick pitch, and it's really about craftsmanship. They have to work really, really hard to learn this pitch, and they have to commit to it. And sometimes they can just get by and they can make it to the Major Leagues. And for us it's really a story about following your passions and overcoming obstacles to accomplish what you want. >>Adubato: You want to see

>>Stern: Sure. >>Adubato: More importantly, do you want to see a clip? I know you do. It's from Knuckleball! Let'stake CLIP: The knuckleball, it looks easy, but like most things in baseball it's a lot harder than it looks. You need the fingertips of a safe cracker and the mind of a Zen Buddhist. As you throw the ball off of your fingertips, but if one of the fingers happens to catch on the ball or stay on it a little bit longer, it tumbles. And once a ball tumbles, it's like batting practice, here, hit it. A lot of times it has a mind of its own. It's going to do whatever it feels like doing and you don't know what that's going to be. You let it go and see where it takes you. >>Adubato: The ball doesn't even spin. >>Stern: No, that's the whole point. In order to do it well, it's just a quarter rotation on the ball, you don't want it to spin.

>>Adubato: You know, for those of us who are Yankees fans, right, we just had our boss, Neal Shapiro, who's a big Yankee fan - I take a look at Tim Wakefield, I think of all the games we played against the Red Sox. And sometimes he had the Yankees going crazy. Sometimes he got them good, sometimes he had us - I say us like I play for the Yankees - sometimes he had the best hitters chasing it. Wakefield, did he go to this pitch because he had nothing else left? RS: Yeah, it's what they call a lastchance type pitch. In fact, that's what he said, it's a pitch born out of desperation. No one grows up and says, I'm going to get to the Major Leagues throwing this knuckleball because it's so distrusted. Even Tim, who's thrown it for 17 years for the Red Sox - in the movie, you hear from Francone that you have to - >>Adubato: Terry Francone who was the manager of the Red Sox. >>Stern: Yeah, you know the managers, they sit on their hands.

>>Adubato: They can't help the knuckleball, they don't know how to throw it, there's no pitching coach that - >>Stern: No, there's no pitching coach. >>Adubato: By the way, the knuckleballer breaks a nail, what happens? >>Stern: Well in the movie R.A., he's throwing the home opener in 2011 and he has a weird first couple pitches and we say what's going on. We see him look down at his fingernail and he chipped a nail. And they throw it really literally off their fingernail tips so it threw him off for a day or two until the nail grew back and he could get it back into place because it's a very finesse type of a pitch. >>Adubato: I'm sorry, I threw you off, you were talking about Terry Francone. >>Stern: What I was saying was that the managers they, they literally sit on their hands because it's one of those pitches that when it's bad, it's really, really bad. >>Adubato: It is like a big, fat pitch in batting practice. >>Stern: That's right. >>Adubato: Like you're lobbing the ball in. >>Stern: That's right. It looks like that and if it doesn't come in, it doesn't have movement on it,it's very

easy to hit. >>Adubato: OK so say someone comes in and says I'm not that into baseball, so how could I like yourfilm? >>Stern: Well I was not really into baseball either. >>Adubato: Yeah, you're not a big fan. >>Stern: No, nor is my film partner Annie. Now I really love it because I get it, but before I hadn't really watched it. But the film is really not about baseball. Baseball, this pitch, is a vehicle for accomplishing your dream. But I think what people relate to - and even kids watching it - is a story about guys who had a passion and a dream as little boys, and we tell it from the point when they're little boys, and they had to do whatever they could to stay in the game. I mean Tim came in and he wasn't even a pitcher, he was a position player, and they basically said we're going to cut you, your dreams are over, go back, get a job, finish college, or you can try to pitch. And he tried it and he was successful. He wasn't always successful - that's the other thing about these guys, that they often reached success later in life. I mean, R.A. Dickey is now into his mid to late30s and he's having the best year he's ever had. You know, most guys in baseball are retiring at this age. But I think if you're someone who just likes a good story, that's

what this film is about. And about camaraderie, because we have the old knuckleballers in the movie - >>Adubato: Phil Niekro? >>Stern: Phil Niekro and Charlie Hough, Tom Candiotti, but the guys go on a golf retreat. >>Adubato: The knuckleballers? >>Stern: The knuckleballers, the four of them, and you really see sort of the special insight into this bonding these men have, and they care for each other and they advise each other, and that's really unique in professional sports today. >>Adubato: Rare. >>Stern: Rare, yeah. >>Adubato: Ricki, thank you for coming in today. >>Stern: Thank you very much. ADRIENN BANHEGYI SHARES WHAT IT'S LIKE TO GO FROM CHAMPIONSHIP JUMPROPING TO PERFORMING ONSTAGE WITHCIRQUE DU SOLEIL. I come from Hungary. That's where I started Jump Roping. It originates pretty much from my dad, because he saw a movie with girls' Double Dutch in it and he thought it would be a great sport

for his students in the school he was teaching at that time. We saw an American team performing and they were already at a very high level at that time, so that was kind of my big inspiration to stick difficult tricks. We won quite a few competitions, actually 3 times world championships and five times European championship. So itwas about 20 years ago when I started and I did 16 years of competition. At one point I felt like it's enough of competition and it's time to kind of do a transition in my life. One night there was a Cirque de Soleil Show presented on TV and that's when the idea came that I could do very similar Cirque de Soleil was looking for professional Rope Skippers, so I handed them my materials, showed them a video and they invited us to France to show off our skipping skills.

Actually I had a lot of help from Cirque, because before we get to perform in a show we have to participate in a long training period., where we not only learn the choreography, but we work with a lotof different people who help us to learn about body language, gestures, mimics, to play with the face and to express ourselves It's a big difference, because normally in a competitive world you train train train a lot to be in the best possible shape when the competition comes and the performances are more focused on the consistencies so you can do it everyday. Quidam is about, a young girl, Zoey and she is being neglected by her parents, so she escapes to an imaginary world, where she is encouraged by different characters so she can find her happiness again. The whole jump rope act It's about creating a playing atmosphere to bring back the playground feeling, there are about 20 performers

on the stage at the same time and we do all the possible tricks with the jump rope you can see combinations, speed, multiple unders, a lot of acrobatics and all combined with funky music. For me the hardest part was the transition, to learn how to express myself and how to find a connection with the audience, so they can have as much fun as I do when I'm doing it. For us the tour is like a little traveling village. We are 52 artists from 18 different countries after some time we kind of become each other's family, because we spend so much time together. One of the nicest things about having jump rope in the show that it's close to everyone. Pretty mucheverybody had an experience with the jump rope. With all the traveling, with meeting people, and get to listen to different languages, and experiencing a lot form different cities and the world around it's

something I always wanted to do and I really love what PHOTOGRAPHER DANIEL REBERT DISCOVERED HIS LOVE FOR ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE FACE OF PERSONAL HARDSHIP. My photography comes from within me. I like to be very active in my photography. Most of what I do, it's a lot of the light setting up, getting the angles from the sun. And then I go into Photoshop and usually for hours on one single image, I bring up the contrast and every single dimension, every single shape - I just bring up the contrast, that's

One of the things that I thought was really cool when I was looking at your pictures perspective on art. I like to have human subjects, just any kind of aspect of humans, because that's what we can all relate to most of all, I think. Whether it be in a park or urban setting, I just need people because I think that's really expressive. Now, all of this has been a journey for you. Both roads with health since you were born. You were born with cancer. I don't tell many people about my story, what I've been through. I was born with cancer, a rare formof cancer, and I was very sick. Until about the age of four. Yeah, until the age of four is

when they took it out, the cancer, after some chemotherapy. And then you were clear until the age of 12. About 12 - I was announced clear then a random xray I had to take revealed some nodules some, yeah, some tumors in my kidneys. And what happened? They had to be taken out. Both kidneys? Yeah, both kidneys. Wow. And then your father gave you one of his kidneys, and now you're up to the age of about 15. Tell me what happens. About 15 I got the transplant. There were many complications. And here you are today. Now, how old are you? 22. 22, and you're healthy. Yeah. And how did you get through all of that? Did art play a role in that for you? Yes it did. In the hospital, able to lift my hands and think straight, I wanted

to distract myself with some art. I didn't have a computer with me, I didn't have any cameras, but I did have oil pastels and I did a piece on that. And I wanted to really bring out the people that helped me. The piece is they're all part of one body of - Of saving you, literally. Yeah, they all helped me in many ways they don't even know. They helped me, encouraged me to not give up, What did you learn from all that, Daniel? Well, really, never give up. I didn't stop doing art even when I was very sick and weak. I have my scars and I wanted to show how I got something out of that experience. It

changed me. So I got the idea to have a part of me, a different part of me - a joyous, carefree, better person coming out of me. It made you better. You really believe that. I do. How? I know that I can't take anything for granted. I have to be in the moment. Especially when taking photos, I have to give it all I have. And art has helped you through the pain. Yes. So what would you tell somebody else who may be going through tough times? Keep doing what inspires you to be you. For me, it was my art. I know that I'm not myself without myart. Are you happy today?

I'm happy today. Well, Daniel, it's been really inspiring to hear your story. And I'm sure it's inspiring and uplifting for people, as well. Thank you for telling us, for sharing. I'll let you get back to what you really love, and that's taking pictures. Alright, NEXT TIME ON COLORES!

ROBB JANOV AT ALBUQUERQUE'S JEFFERSON MIDDLE SCHOOL TRANSFORMS THE CLASSROOM AND THE STUDENTS THROUGH HIS INNOVATIVE ROCK AND RHYTHM BAND. They're failing most of their classes, not doing well. Or even if they are doing well they're disengaged, their disconnected and I'm hoping that creating this environment and giving them a chance to succeed at something that they love, can start changing their perspective of themselves. ROBERT HUNTER, HAS SHARED THE STAGE WITH ROCK LEGENDS. YEARS LATER, HE TRADES HIS HEAVY METAL ROOTS FOR JAZZ. Good music is good music, doesn't matter what it is. THE 2008 WINNER OF GOSPEL DREAM, MELINDA WATTS, SHARES HER PASSION FOR MAKING MUSIC. My goal now is to help other people realize their dreams because I'm living mine. UNTIL NEXT TIME, THANK