TDF- EP.4~ AMBER JOY LAYNE

This episode we really switch things up as we invite the hilarious and highly driven Amber Joy Layne to be a part of the podcast and she invites us into her home as our first guest that isn't working on the ship with me. Amber is the "Dancing Comedian." based out of Miami that is sure to bring her middle name wherever she goes.  Amber and I met up originally to make a TikTok dance and after hanging out a couple times she actually helped/ inspired the work of this podcast to become a reality. Please enjoy this fun episode and follow Amber to see more of her great work! @amberjoylayne 

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Host- Ty Nelson @tallglassofty

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Transcript

Hello and welcome back to another episode of TheDanceFloor. I'm your host, Ty Nelson, and today we are in the beautiful home, a different area if you will. We're spicing things up. We have Amber Joy Layne, a comedian, a host, a dancer. A sparkly jacket extraordinaire, a great parallel parker, and she has awesome earrings today. Sriracha, to be exact. Just to spice things up, Yeah. I'll. Let's look at. He's already on this thing. She's gonna be an excellent guest, as all of our guests have been. But I'm really excited. We're doing something new. We're in literally her house. So this is gonna be a fun episode. Amber, welcome. Thank you. So I gave my kinda thing. I'm really having you here. Yeah. Thank you for having me here. Yeah. What would you like to say is like your intro, like what do you want people to know about you, 'cause I get my little thing, but who are you? Who am I? Amber Joy Layne, the dancing comedian, is the brand. I am a performer, entertainer, creator of all the of all the sorts. Diversify is the name of my game. Keep doing as many things as possible so that I can keep never having to go to a nine to five in my life. That's the goal. Live in Miami. I'm a performer. Umm, I do different kinds of shows from stand up comedy to plays. Just hosting a circus and the dance is the love of my life. What was the most recent play that you just did? The well it's not really a play, but the most recent work you did. Well, I did just do a play. It was called POTUS. Or Behind Every Great ******* or Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive. There you go. That's the full name of the title. Yes, that's the entire title. People call it POTUS for short. It was a very interesting time. We did it right after the election. So it's, I always said it's more of a feminist piece than a partisan piece, but it was in like the biggest theater we have in Miami, which was really cool. So I did that and then I just started working on this circus the last couple of months where I host and people do crazy things in the air and I'm the comedic relief in between. Yeah, Ice-breaker question, if you will. It's like summer camp. I feel the trauma coming back already. God, I'm kidding. Icebreaker. I kind of asked this one for Denise, but I'd like to bring this back with you because it's a different ask. So I mean, you do so many things outside of just one lane. Hosting, dancing, acting. ‘Amber Joy Layne’ Yes. Her own Layne, if you will. What's like your your warmup routine for show speaking wise, show dancing wise and then show acting wise? Like obviously the acting incorporates some of both of the first two, but like you have a separate warm up for each one or do you do the same thing each time as a ritual? warm up? Right. OK. No warm up. Right, Right, right. Can you? I've been doing the same show consistently so your brain doesn't have to think about what you're gonna do most of the time. Like, you actually can really warm up. Yeah. Right. Would you say? Yeah, I like, I feel like I'm doing something different every day that my warm up is like really just going in my brain over every single thing that I'm about to do. For stand up: It's like the transitions between jokes. Umm, Dance: Like I don't have to warm up my brain, my body knows it and I'll actually get to warm up my body, right? And lately I'm I'm working on the vocal warmups 'cause I realize this is an instrument of mine as well, even though I don't sing. It needs to be warmed up as well, but I just try and like center myself. I usually listen to some music, try and find a little pocket away from everybody else. Umm and justice kind of like visualize the show and like it going well and like the feeling of response and that like trying to like bring that into an existence because as we know bad audiences can kill your vibe completely. So I just always try and like send good energy. Please let this audience be killer. Honestly, that's that's smart. I don't think I've done that. I don't think I've visualized like the show going well. I'm more so in my own bubble whenever I warm up. I I feel you though. I'm like taking the pocket away on the ship specifically. There's like a little corridor or even a door frame, it's kind of backed up and I just like sit in it and listen to my music. A little bit of dance, but I'm gonna start adapting that, like visualizing the show going well, the audience loving it. Started trying to speak things into existence more because I found like I was being a little bit negative because I'm gonna show that a lot of technical things aren't working and I was just kind of like expecting them to go badly. And so I felt like even last night I had a different effective I was like “This show is the best!” OK “The people that are coming are incredible people.” yeah and it's also just funny cuz I'm like around all these circus people so their warmups like taking their body I just see them doing these crazy contortions I'm just like. just a simple little…  Yeah. Little shoulder roll. Yeah. I mean, Differ.., I'm sure, you know, different disciplines. I mean, but yeah, just visualizing and projecting good, seeing good and hoping that comes into existence. I like that. Yeah. Like I said, I think I'm gonna legit like adapt. Take it, Yeah, take it people. So let's talk a little bit about your background. What is your, I guess, schooling or too white. Comedian, comedian Amber Joy Lane, right there. You heard it. OK Sorry. No, you're good. Don't. Don't you ever apologize. So yeah. What's your background? Whether it be, you know, academic, whether it be physical, like where you trained. Started off in piano, actually. Yeah, Oh yeah. And then I'd go to the piano recitals and I'd perform like this… (looking back at the audience) My teacher was like, “I think you need to get her on stage.” And so I finally got to go to dance only at like 10.OK, which is late for dancers, for a lot of dancers, for a lot of girls, they like get their flexibility between like 6 and 9 And so I was already leaked to that game. And then I trained in like a dance performing middle school. I had like went for like a magnet program and then I auditioned for a high school program for dance and musical theater and they were like… mhmmm: Acting. So I didn't get into either program. Instead I got into a different program and I hadn't acted before. But they just saw that I was like more of an actress than a modern ballet dancer, which was their program. And I Can't Sing for ****. If I could sing, I would’ve never been funny, but… So then I started this acting program and that like really was a game changer because I think acting is like just a basis for performing no matter what kind of division you're doing, being able to connect with an audience, being able to connect with people on stage and just perform project not like laid the groundwork for when I became a comedian later on. So I had acting and I had danced and then I was like, I want to make money in life. So I went to school for marketing and I kind of abandoned my dream a little bit. I just was like, didn't think that I could be good enough in America and just this really intense industry. So I kept dancing like I taught, I started a little hip hop crew at my college. And I took them to World of Dance Boston. Oh, work. Yeah, OK, we did not do well, but.. It was, it was called La Femme. The group was called La Femme and we had these pink beanies. It was cute, mm like Lafleemme, like it almost. It's giving phlegm. It's not a phlegm. That's why you guys didn’t...place high… Maybe that's why we didn't win. Le Femme in French FEMME. So wait, OK, what did you guys place in place at all? You had a lot of fun. We had fun. And I took girls who had like, never even touched that world of the competitive. Dude, I have to show you the people who won that year. I watched that video consistently. This is group from Canada. Oh my God, I have to find them. They were like, it was also just cool for my like girls who are all like also like journalism majors, poli sci. And we're sitting there watching this like magic. So that was cool. I would actually love to see. Do you have footage of what you guys did? I have to assume I have to assume you were choreographing it, right? Yeah. Yeah. I want to see your work on it 'cause she's a she's a really fun choreographer. We've already done a video, but this is the beginning of Amber Joy Lane choreographing and I, it was like the molding, the beginning, beginning. There's a lot, Really. Oh, hey, OK. Yeah, really hype. Not a lot of dynamics, but I learned anyway. Then I moved to Tel Aviv, Israel, and ended up becoming a professional dancer because the bar was much lower, No. No, but it was just smaller. It's a smaller, smaller community. You could get to the top really quickly if you just knew one or two people. And so then I started training with a hip hop crew that was like going to HHI. You know, hip hop international, Yeah. And then like, my training got like so much better. And I just was like, alright, I'm gonna become a dancer. And then I did. And it was, I mean, the best, the best performing for thousands of people or like at a bat mitzvah, it didn't really matter to me. Like the, the scale of the thing. Yeah, it doesn't matter to me as long as there are people and they're there to enjoy. Like I can dance for anybody at any time. I feel that. Yeah. Yeah, I think sometimes, especially from a audio, an audience standpoint, people who see performers. They're like, oh man, how do you do it? It's so scary and it's like, honestly, it's just the same as having 10 people and 1000 people. If the audience is fun, you know, for dance, I gotta tell you, for comedy, so much different. Sometimes three people in a room is the most. It's the gut wrenching. It gets me so nervous. Verses like I did a crowd of 1800 people is my biggest theater. I wasn't nervous at all. Also because I couldn't see any of them, right, Which was kind of crazy. Yeah. I mean, and then comedy is really should be this kind of like intimate experience. Yeah. But. Comedy versus dance. Dance is just, it exists no matter what. No matter the space, it exists. Comedy depends on the relationship between the crowd. Yeah. You know, like, you can do a dance and people clap at the end and you're like, that was great. Comedy, you know, throughout how you doing? Yeah. And you get a vibe of the audience as well. Like I feel like in dance, they're watching the art. It's passive. Comedy, it's interacting. Gain your comfort. We're choreographing it together with comedy. Yeah, that's a really good way to think about it, actually, Denise, we talked about Blues in that style, and that's kind of the same thing. Do you.. Blues? The Blues? Yeah. She was. She was saying it's not the clues, not clues, clues now, even though I look like Steve sometimes depending on the shirt. Oh, You kinda do. Ber ber berrrr (blue’s talking/barking) ‘Mail time’ ‘Blue s’cado we should too.’ This is not sponsored.  We're 90s kids. Yeah, But it was kind of the same deal where it's like the intimacy of that's what blues should be versus playing a big stadium like jazz clubs and things like that. There's certain art that need intimacy. And I think it's nice that it transpires at a completely different mediums, but it's still the same principle. Yeah, I haven't thought about that, actually. That is kind of fun. Yeah. Even though it's different, it's like another through line that connects art from one place to another. You can literally enjoy comedy the same way you can enjoy music. And that's kind of why I love art. That's kind of like the New York vibe you know like the Comedy Cellar is not a huge venue and it's right across the street from all like the jazz venues like on the same street you can go into like same with burles Same with burlesque. Burlesque is another form of like dance, and yeah, that is intimate. You can't do burlesque in a in a arena. Absolutely not. That's cool. I haven't thought about that. The intimate arts. That's a cool concept. The intimate arts look out soon for…Book or stand up or anything from Amber Joy Lane Yes show inspires you outside of like. People? Like maybe what about the art inspires you? What do you look for when you see performances? What's your inspiration to get up and go to your own thing? I'll answer this in two parts. There's somebody who inspired my dance journey was Paris Goebbel. Okay, yeah. Paris Goebbel; Royal Family. I don't know. You've seen, if you've watched documentaries about her, but at like 15 years old, she was doing horrible in school. She didn't care. Her dad was like, “what do you want?” She's like, “I just want to dance.” And he goes, “Great.” He let her drop out of high school. He goes, “If you're going to do this, you're going it all the way.” So she dropped out of high school at 15, opened a dance studio at 16 years old, opened a dance studio at 16 years old, 'cause she knew with no doubt in her mind that that is what she was meant to do. And I don't know if you her career, she's worked with literally every superstar, every superstar. She just hit Gaga with abracadabra, I mean, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, I mean. These videos were dropping back when I was in college. I mean, her concepts, that's what I loved. She took dance and made it theatrical and it was still hip-hop, still hip-hop in this whole, this whole new style that like, I mean, I compare her to like Bob Fosse, who like created a style in and of its own. And when you see Paris Goebbel choreography, you know it's Paris Goebbel. Yeah, she's an auteur as, as, as she changed a game. So she was definitely a big inspiration just 'cause she, I mean, from 16, just Empire now, and she did the Fenty runway like she took fashion and made it like super, just hip hop, super cool. So that and she's from New Zealand and so my transition into the other thing that inspires me is dance around the world. I travel a lot or I try to and whenever I go to a new country, I make sure to take a dance class. So I’ve taken a dance class in Hong Kong and Australia, in London, in Canada, like wherever I am, I try and take a class because you don't need the language to learn universal language. It's a universal language. And so just like watching in different places, like how I mean, I did one in Paris too, I mean, I was a such a fun choreo and it was like it makes you actually pay attention more because you can't understand the words. So you really have to pay attention to body language. Like what are they really articulating? Because there's nobody telling you like, hey, don't hit this so hard. You gotta really like massage this beat and you're just like. Yeah. What does this mean? Yeah, that's. Yeah, that's kind of cool, actually. So it is it's it's it's cool because I taught dance in another country and and I took dance a lot when I was with this crew. They were we were rehearsing in another language in Hebrew. And so I. It was stressful, but I had to just be in this like I had to zone the **** in to to see what everyone's doing. And so that really inspired me that like dance, just it's a communication. It's a, it's a, it's my way into like the door of different cultures and allowing them to accept me. When I did a comedy show in the Bahamas and there was a completely different kind of room that I'm used to performing for the second I started dancing, they were like, “AYYYEE” and then immediately I'm in. I grew up in Miami, a very culturally diverse place. Now that I can salsa a little bit, it like it just makes every it's like a disarming thing. That's what I love about dance, just disarm the people. It makes you like feel connected without having to be from the same community. It's like a sign of respect. What advice has been the best thing for you in life? And in performing and something that you yourself would like to share is like advice to those who are just wanting to maybe start their journey in the arts or just in general like things that you would give to someone going through maybe a struggle in some way. So like the life part and the performing part, what advice would you want to give the world? Very, very micro level. Don't forget about your hands when you dance, OK!? That's great advice. Don't forget about your hands, OK! I had a choreographer who always was like, your hands are in another dance. I had so much power that my hands were just like, it would like either stop or they'd be floppy. So dance with their hands on a bigger, bigger note. Comparison is the thief of joy. That one hits a lot because we are in time of social media where we're constantly, there's always going to be people who are killing it. They're always going to be people who are incredible or better. And then there's always going to be people who are wishing they could do what you do, wishing and watching you with this same admiration. So I think that I've gotten stuck a little bit on, you know, I don't upload things because I'm a perfectionist and I'm like, I just watched another video where this person killed it. And you know, there's just so much of a range. And what you do, what you have is, is gonna be unique and special, even if you can't see it, especially, you know, I think that's the hardest thing is how can we see ourselves from how other people see us? And I found that so many times later in life, people come and told me something I did affected them that I had no idea. So you don't know the impact that you're making all the way through, even in the little points, 'cause people don't tell you all the time. You might get a a like. Tap, you know, that's all we're doing this for? A tap of someone's thumb, you know, and even a comment that's kind of just, you know, service level, like, oh gosh, good job. Or fire emoji. Yeah, I find it is special too, especially when you perform. Like on the stage and then after the fact people come up and they're like, that was so great. And it just shows you that you have that even on bad shows, you think it's a bad show even when you think you're like, why? Everybody hated it, Nobody laughed. People come up to me like, wow, you're amazing. I'm like, why didn't you laugh? That part too? No, on the ship people will be like, it'll be the deadest audience ever. And then reviews.I mean, they're like, we loved it. It was so good. I'm like, you were on your phone the whole time. But hey, thanks for that. We appreciate it. Everyone has different levels of expression. Yeah, too. Yeah, that's true. I think people can really enjoy as performers, we're so expressive that we think that if we like something or they're like, ah, get it, wow, cuz that's how we show it. But some people are like… And that means they loved it. They're like, that's it. And they're like having the best time of their lives. Like we just don't, we don't realize that. Also I think that in a bigger scale, different conversation, that's something of the younger generation 'cause they're so used to consuming content in this way. Right. They don't know like how to be in person and express and appreciate and laugh. Laughing is vulnerable. And a lot of people are like a little more timid. So we can't take that as a measurement of our own, you know, talent or success. So just really being… Best advice: Being happy with what you're doing, always need to be better and not looking to the sides. Very good. Yeah, very well said. I think also in the digital age, like we get all these likes or whatever and then we again compare some people joy compared to other people's likes. But you forget if 100 people liked your thing that.100 people, 100 people is a lot of people. And now, granted, these days there's bots, but you know, you got bots. I mean, probably we all got bots. I've been getting it checked out recently, but they're still around. I like my bots. Yeah? How many bots you got? Yeah, I have no idea. But if they're here and they're liking, I like them. OK, Shout Out to the bots. This episode sponsored by Bots. Dance collaboration; We're gonna talk about the song that you chose today. What's really fun about this one, Amber was just a moment ago, editing the song together painstakingly. That perfectionism she's talking about, she's really trying to make it sound good, but it does sound incredible. So what's the song that you chose today? “Dirty Pop” (beat boxing?)Exactly. Just like it's actually just us saying it, singing it. If I could beat box, Yeah, it's pop and sync. I always say that there. The music today was the music around when I was a kid. I don't know if I'd be a dancer. There's just certain songs from my childhood that were like that were like for Missy, for me, Missy Elliott, Missy Elliott, Chris Brown, Usher, this like and and NYSNC, Justin Timberlake, like these sounds that were coming out. It made me want to move. And I don't feel that way as much about certain song, like the stuff that's on the radio now. I'm like.”MEH” But back then, no, really, it's fine. Maybe it's catchy, but the beats, they're not like dirty. They're not like, like these these songs from our childhood, they were like, they made me want to dance. So this is one of those that was like, yeah, it's like so much fun. It's like, what inspired Step Up, you know, like till have step up movies with just the the music and the vibes that we produce because everything I think is more so like a club vibe. And back in the day it literally was just get down. But it's got a lot of things going on dynamically in beats and like it's so fun as a dancer. I say it's our job as dancers to paint music for people. Like, we show you things in the song that you would not maybe have heard. Like we make you hear it. Like, yeah, we're painting basically with our bodies. So this song has just so much, and I wanna show it to you. This song has the Crayola 64 crayons of sound in it, it's got a lot going on. I like that. Thank you, thank you. I sometimes am good at this.If you were, I mean you have a really diverse, just in general talent like pathway, you can do so much, but what outside of the arts would you have pursued? What?  No. Nothing? What if there was no art? What would be the first thing you'd be going for? Just being a sloth? mean, I guess it's I feel like I feel like everything is art. So it's hard for me to even like see that. I mean, I do write commercials, which is yeah, yeah. Let's get a… plug little real quick.I, I went to school for marketing, kind of like, you know, abandoned it when I became a dancer. But when I became a comedian, I realized I was a writer. I didn't realize it because I was just like writing to perform, but I realized that stuff, I was a writer and then I wasn't getting a lot of work in commercials. And so I finally got an opportunity to write one and put myself in it and then I realized that commercials are the same structures as jokes. It's a setup, it's a punchline, and it's a tag. Like a little beat after. Yep. So like a commercial is technically not art. Maybe, I don't know. It's business. It's it's a selling. It's a communication. I mean, communication. I guess it would be my answer. Communications in general, producing, making things happen. But it's all art. It's all art to me. I mean, I definitely wasn't going to be math or science. That's for sure not. I can't. I still count with my fingers. Math and science are not my my thing. But teaching, teaching. I love to teach. I love to inspire. Like motivational speaking. I think it's probably down the line for me. And I mean still art, but like theatre, therapy, dance therapy, those things, like maybe once I've had my time on stage and I've enjoyed it enough, see if that ever ends. What is theater therapy? My God, So cool. We don't have enough time. But I'll tell you a really quick, really quick story. When I was in high school and I had this, I was in this acting program. One of my teachers took us to a woman's prison where she taught theater and we saw a play from the inmates and it was one of the most impactful experiences. She gave them characters that kind of related to whatever they were in there for, and you could just see the transformation there. Sometimes you need a character to be able to work on your thing instead of it being directly with you working on it in this kind of external way helps you. So theater therapy is not as widely recognized as music therapy and art therapy because those have like really shown the cognitive like correlations people will like hear a song that have like dementia and like able to recall those lyrics and art is like a fine motor skill so people. Parkinson's but dance and and theater therapy are also valid. I think with kids, a lot of them now autism or ADHD. Theater is a way for them to like focus their energy.Umm, so exploring that in the future is something that interests me, but not for now. Well, Speaking of the future and a little bit of now, what is the best way for people to find you? What is the things that you're coming up with very soon? And go ahead and plug You your things.. Hinge. No, I'm kidding. I don't even know…Can people find you on Hinge? No, thank God. No, there's no search function. OK, good. Imagine that'd be crazy. Amber Joy Layne. Not my socials. A MB ERLAYNE.It had a lot of rhythm. AM BERLAYNE. OK, Amber Joylayne ‘woo’. The woo is not as part of the handle. But yeah, on Instagram and YouTube and Tiktok and all the things follow me so that I can get bigger jobs. That's it. You know, that's what we needed. Doesn't matter necessarily what you do in this game. It doesn't. She's not wrong. It sucks, but I find that a lot of people a lot less talent or 
booking things because they have a following. So you know, come and follow me and I promise to make you smile every day. Yeah, can agree. Can cosign on that. If you want to see someone truly talented, Amber Joy Layne and again, so many things, comedy, you know, actual performances on live stages, dancing, the dancing comedian Amber Joy Layne. Thank you for joining. We're going to go ahead and transition now into the collaborative effort and make a dance together. And we've already made a dance by the time this is aired, which is really fun. You can check that out on our Instagram as well. Yeah, we're up to 10K.Oh, who knows by the time this is out, Yeah, it could be 1111.Yes, yes, indeed. As always, I'm Ty Nelson, your host. You can find me at Tall Glass Of Ty. I want to give a huge thank you sincerely to Amber Joy Layne for letting us be in her house and being a part of this episode. Make sure you check her out. We hope that you found some inspiration and thank you for listening. Hopefully one day maybe we'll see you out on TheDanceFloor, buh-bye everybody! @amberjoylayne