You know I need I need like a little move to show Oh man, he's got some moves over here. Okay. I got to impress your girl Taylor, you know. Okay. So I'm going to teach you to the moves too expensive, okay? Okay. You have to kick out your right leg like this. One, two. Now kick out your left leg. Now you cross front, back and then you like you clap your hands. Seven, eight. And you lean. Lean. And this is like money. Oh yeah, man. This is expensive. You're making it rain.

I can make it rain.

So you go right leg. Right leg. Left leg. Left leg. And criss. Cross. Make it rain. Exactly. Let's do it one more time. Five, six, seven, eight. Right leg. Left leg. Criss. Cross. Make it rain. I love. Do that in the club. Yes buddy. So I got Tadric here. We're kicking it at the Four Seasons. What's up buddy?

I'm great. How are you doing?

I'm doing awesome. So uh where to start with you? There's so many things. Let's start from the beginning. You're in Southern Texas. Yes. And you didn't necessarily feel at home.

Yeah, which is crazy because that that is my home. I did feel at home in some senses but I definitely knew that there was something much different about me than my friends and family members. So um I always.

Extraordinary talent.

Thank you very much. I will take that. Um but yeah I I I always loved Texas though and there's nothing like it. I've like lived all over the world. There's something about the Southern hospitality that's in Texas that can't be can't be matched. Yeah.

So at an early age you were singing in church with your grandma.

Yeah. I did that. I did that. Uh except not very well.

No, I heard you sing in this morning. So, your big start really came from do you think YouTube or like what what is it that really got you out front because you tried out for American Idol, right?

I was on American Idol and I made it kind of far in that show but um I felt like I was being someone that wasn't really me, you know what I mean? I was like always nervous every time Ryan Seacrest would start talking to me, I would freak out. And I think it was because I was like not in the closet but I was just like very like, you know, I don't want to like tell everybody my personal life because I want people to vote for me. And after I was off that show, I was like, I don't care about those things anymore. I'm going to just be me. And so I started just going crazy and Buck Wild on YouTube and making videos. I said Buck Wild as if I was doing crazy things.

400 million views. 400 million. That's crazy. Man. What's so wild about you is not only can you dance but you can sing. Not only can you dance and sing but you can choreograph, costume design, write and produce. I I don't I don't know what to cover, what to talk about. So let's talk a little more about the Broadway experience. Kinky Boots. I mean that was like smashing uh records in six Tony Awards. Six Tony Awards. That's so remarkable.

It's crazy. It's really it's such a blessing. Um I didn't really know that much about Kinky Boots. I'd seen it a couple of times but I've seen so many shows that they start to merge together. But when I got this role, I went to go see the show again and I realized how much it paralleled with my real life and how how much I felt like Lola and Simon. And because I'm now a judge on RuPaul's Drag Race and have such a huge appreciation and respect for that art form. I was like, I cannot wait to do this. And um I now have I had already had respect for drag queens and already had respect for people who do eight shows a week on Broadway. But because I don't date women, I didn't really know how difficult it was to make sure you do your hair and walk in heels and the earrings and the lip gloss and the nails and all. It is so difficult. So you should be in Kinky Boots so you would appreciate what these women do for you and girls out there, thank you so much for all the extra work that you have to do to to just you don't need to do it to be beautiful but they do it so that they look glamorous and look and it's fun to dress up but.

You had you had 10 costume changes in Kinky Boots.

Yes.

And they're like, I saw They're like research? Yeah, of course. They were like They're like heavy. They're all like they're exotic. It's not like just throw on a different shirt like me.

No, no, no. It's new new heels, new a wardrobe, new like undergarments because you can't wear the same bras and the same like undergarments with every outfit. And then you have to have new wigs for everything because if you're really fabulous, you don't wear the same hair every day.

So how how did you keep up with eight shows a week? vocally, physically?

I just went to I'm still recovering right now. I've only been I've been out of the show for a week today. Today will be a week that I've been out of the show. But um I just had to go to sleep. I had to not talk for 12 to 14 hours. So over half the day or over half of the day. I didn't talk. And then I would um watch what I ate and drink lots of water.

Wow. I tried to watch what I ate. That's not really fully true because I have a sweet tooth. So what was it like having your first like major lead on Broadway? It was Is the pressure heavy? How did you deal with it?

It was It's all pressure is always heavy because I'm a perfectionist. So I always want everything to be great. And the difficult thing about Broadway is that when you are a performer in LA or an actor, you can pick and choose what parts of your life you want people to see, you know? Like or you can make shoot reshoot the scene over and over and over again until it's right. On Broadway, you're only as good as that performance. So you're good six shows out of the week but that matinee or the last show on Sunday night, you cannot be great and people will be like, I saw him and he wasn't that great. Whereas a movie, everyone saw the same thing and interpreted the way they saw it. So knowing that, I have to like try every single day to be just as good or to to be, you know, like to try to be on my A-game every day, which was really hard.

As I see your work and now you have this film coming out that's basically a documentary style kind of dives into your life start to finish but also the making of your Wizard of Oz um the the music video that you made. Yeah. And so can you tell me a little bit about your thinking stepping into the Wizard of Oz. Why what what resonated with the Wizard of Oz?

Well first of all, I have a whole sleeve tattoo dedicated to the Wizard of Oz. On the back of my neck it says "Made in Oz". Made in Oz. Yes. I've always loved the story and I think subconsciously it's because I've I identify with Dorothy. I like grew up in a small town and I felt like nobody understood me and I wanted to go somewhere that was bigger and brighter and more grand and colorful. And that's what I always wanted. And so um the Wizard of Oz like has always spoken to me and when I decided I wanted to talk to people about something that I love but things that were I was really passionate about like racism and homophobia and sexism and and just like how the industry in Hollywood as you know, is not always what you think it is before you move here. I just said if I do something too preachy and too like hitting people over the head with this information, it's going to seem like I'm just some bitter actor who did hasn't accomplished the things that I wanted and that's not how I feel. So I wanted to write something that could be related to a story that everyone knows and loves. Wizard of Oz is one of the most classic American stories ever. And so I wanted to tell that same story but through the eyes of a young, you know, African American kid who was different and artistic. And um I think that's why it's so many it touched so many people's hearts and people um responded to it so well.