Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello everyone and welcome to the New Yorkers, a podcast by New York City Cop. I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, published photographer, New York City tour business owner, content creator, podcaster, and above all else, a New Yorker.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Ladies and gentlemen, the next Brooklyn found trained in mount riding.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Stand clear of the closing doors please.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: This is a con square for Symphony Street.
Transfer is available to the shuttle.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: With me today, everybody. I have Emmy award winning actress Ricky Lake.
She's a TV and film actress, producer and television show host.
You can see her star in Hairspray or host her Ricki Lake talk show which ran for 12 seasons and aired over 2,000 episodes. But above all else, she is a New Yorker. Hey, Ricky, how you doing today?
[00:01:19] Speaker B: I'm great, I'm great. It's so funny to hear you say I'm a New Yorker because I am a New Yorker, born and raised. I left for a really long time and with no plans of coming back and yet here I am back in this town, which is arguably the greatest city in the world.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: Completely agree. You know, I think it's really cool to have you here, you know, on the couch talking with us. You know, we've seen you, we have all seen you on tv.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: You've grown up with me, you've.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: We've grown up with you when we've seen your show, the Ricki Lake show. You know, it was such a big part of our. It was almost 10 years. Right.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: The first show ran for 11 years from 93 to 04. And the second show, I went back and did a new kind of, supposed to be an updated kind of, I don't know, 2.0, but it only lasted for one season from 2012 to 2013.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: I love that this is a little tease we're talking about because now we're going to go back to the beginning and work our way back up to this. Okay. Yes. So where were you born, Ricky?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: I was born in, I think Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:02:25] Speaker B: So my dad is from the Bronx, Wallace Avenue.
And yes. And then I was raised. My first five years was in Yonker and then we moved to Hastings on Hudson.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: You know, I have. My good friend Jen lived on, lived in Hastings on the Hudson for years. So I'm familiar with her last name.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Maybe I went to school.
She my age.
Yeah, yeah, I probably know.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: Well, no, she might be two years younger.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Okay.
I didn't mean to put you on the spot.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I'm just trying.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Good friend though.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Yes.
Well, it's Jen. But right now, for a second, you know how it is, we're just talking to where our brain goes blank. Her last name? I can't. Jen Wright. Why? Jennifer Wright.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Jennifer, yeah.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: If she's 2, her married name is Tubs. That's what I was thinking of. So I was trying to remember her maiden name.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: She doesn't sound familiar, but I left that school in the end of 10th grade and went to school in the city. I did my junior and senior year at Professional Children's School in New York.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Really? Where, where is that located?
[00:03:21] Speaker B: It is on 60th between Columbus and Amsterdam. And it's still there. It's been there for over 100 years.
Yeah, yeah, it's. It's wild. Like, like, you know, I commuted, I took Metro North, I took two subways. It was, it was a wild time.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: What about your parents, were they born in New York?
[00:03:39] Speaker B: My parents are from the Bronx and my mother is from Mount Vernon.
So yeah, I mean, you know, my dad had a pharmacy called Great Lake Company. So my last name is Lake. His. My grandfather started it and it was in the Inwood section of Manhattan. And so it was there for like 30 years or something. So, yeah, no, I am very much rooted here. But like I said, I left after September 11, I left.
I made a very dramatic decision in that moment of watching that all unfold on that day. I mean, I saw firsthand the plane, the second plane fly down the Hudson and hit the building.
And I was living in the West Village at the time. I was married and had a two month old and a four year old. And I was so deeply, deeply messed up from that day and that experience that I left the city.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: You know, that's interesting because I had not, I did not live in New York City at that time.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Yet you were in Orlando, right?
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Exactly. And which was terrifying because they closed.
It was terrifying for everyone. But they, they closed. I remember they closed Disney World. It was the first time ever it's been closed for, you know, obvious reasons. You know, it's very multicultural, touristy tourism, you know, and you know, it was a terrifying time. But I have thought in the past, like, gosh, if I had lived in New York at the time, would have I have myself moved away from New York City.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: That's interesting. I mean, for me, I was a new mom, you know, I was a lactating mom.
I was doing that talk show, which was an amazing, you know, job and experience.
But I was, you know, what season was I at that show at the time? Maybe season eight or season. No, season nine. I only had a few more years on my contract and it was the juxtaposition of watching all of that, you know, watching the tower fall from my apartment, which is where I gave birth two months prior. I had this like very powerful, profound birth experience in my home where I felt like a warrior. And then two months later, almost up to the day, I watched the world, you know, change dramatically. And. And then it was, then it was going back to do my show two days later and it was some stupid, ridiculous topic. And it was that, like looking at, you know, both extremes of like. And the National Guard was in my neighborhood and it was such a scary thing and I'm having to do these silly topics and I was like, I really wanted to do something that I felt would be even more impactful. Not that my show wasn't. My show was very, very important to a lot of people for nostalgic reasons. And we were able to cover topics that were, you know, really taboo at the time.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: So I'm super proud of what we did. But I think in the end I wanted to do something else and so I started making documentaries after that. I moved to la. I got divorced. You know, I really, really changed my entire trajectory and all of it was super positive in the end for me, you know, it's like I feel like I found myself through that experience and through like sort of starting over.
[00:06:40] Speaker A: I didn't realize the show was airing during, you know, 9 11.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: It was in the height of, it was in the height of its time. And yeah, you know, we didn't really, I mean, we had a firefighter that died, that worked for us.
His name was Brian Cannizzaro. I will never forget him. He was 29 years old. He had a one year old baby. I went to three funerals of people lost that day.
And yeah, I mean, we all, we all were traumatized by it, but it really did change my entire life and perspective on life. And yeah, and for me personally, it worked out, you know, but what's ironic is that years later, so I left New York, I never looked back. Even though I always consider myself, you know, born and raised New Yorker at heart. But I left and moved to LA and really embraced that, you know, lifestyle and that whole different kind of vibe and I loved it there. And then, you know, a year and a half ago almost I, you know, left my house with flames coming to my street and, you know, my house burned down and here I am back. So it's like my life shifted from Like a fight or flight situation. A very impulsive decision was made by me, you know, to leave, to flee New York. And then I fled la.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: How long did you leave New York after? Nine, eleven.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Like, it took a year and a half.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Took a year and a half.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: So I, yeah, I bought a house. I had to, you know, I had to do a lot of things to get my ducks in a row.
And I had a contract for my talk show. So it's not like I quit my show. It's just kind of the contract ended and we didn't renew. And yeah, I could have. I just recently had it. Did an interview with Maury Povich. He had me on his podcast. He was great. He is a legend. And he is in such amazing shape, both cognitively, physically. He looks exactly the same. He is 87 years old. Wow. Yeah. But why did I bring him up?
Oh, God, I forgot why I brought him up. See, this is a problem.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: We were talking earlier today about how
[00:08:40] Speaker B: it works 7 and I'm perimenopause still and my brain sometimes has foggy moments.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: No, I totally get it. I totally get it.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: But yeah, we were on the show and we were talking about just. I could have been doing it as long as he was, you know, I could have stayed doing that show. And I, you know, I chose to go a different route and I'm glad I did.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: Well, it's really interesting because, you know, you were the first young person doing a talk show, right? You were. How old were you when you started it?
[00:09:06] Speaker B: I was 23 when I did the pilot and I went on the air at 24.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: How do you go, you know, from a. As a 23 year old, hey, I'm gonna do a talk show.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: It wasn't like that. I wish I could say I, I manifested it and it was my idea. It was not work. It was not my idea. I was an actress, so I'd done many films, starting with Hairspray. I did Crybaby. I was on a show called China Beach. I. I had been like established as.
And I'd been on Letterman. I was a guest on Letterman many, many times. I was sort of like Sandra Bernhard where like a guest would fall out, he'd call me up and have me fill in. So I was on his show at least 15 times. And so it was Garth Ann Sear and his team. He was like this programming kind of whiz and he looked at the marketplace of talk show television at the time. It was Oprah, it was Sally, Jessie, Phil Donahue.
No it was Jerry Ong.
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Was it Jerry Ong?
[00:09:59] Speaker B: I don't know if he was. Yes. I guess he was on, but he did a different show. Donahue was on, and those shows all skewed over the age of 50. The audience was all people my. Our age.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: And so he looked at that and he said, you know, he figured out a way to, like, let's try and tap into a younger audience. And so he wanted a younger female host. And I was one of a bunch of women that he met with, and he chose me to do the pilot. The pilot went well, and then they went out and sold it in syndication and the rest of history.
Yeah, it just clicked. It was just the right time. I was the right person for that role.
I'm someone that still. I'm super curious about people and relationships and very forthcoming about my own experiences, my hardships, my triumphs. And people related to me. They rooted for me. And I think having the original start with Hairspray and being the girl that kind of wins the dance contest, the underdog that everyone. Everyone loves, I think it. It helped in people embracing me in that role.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I just. Your show was a staple in all of our lives every day.
[00:11:08] Speaker B: It was. And it's such a. It's such a, like, unique kind of fame. I mean, I. I walk around New York. I. I told you, I took the subway here. I used to.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: People recognize you.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: They do, but it's like, hi, Ricky. Like, it's literally like seeing an old friend there. It's. I never feel weird. I always feel just like, you know, it's. It's. It's. It's a joy. It is.
[00:11:29] Speaker A: When I walked in, I saw you sit me smile. I'm like, oh, that's Ricky R. You
[00:11:32] Speaker B: know, it makes me feel really good that people, and particularly a lot of people know my story and been following the fact that we lost our home.
And so moving back here, I feel very much embraced by this town. And it's been such a smooth. I mean, I can't even say it, but. Because at the time, it was so, so scary. I mean, what we went through, losing everything, literally being homeless, you know, literally not knowing where we're gonna go.
And I very impulsively said, let's go to New York. And my husband, to his credit, Ross, my new third and final and favorite husband.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: He final and favorite. And he's six. Six. I saw in one of your reels.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a giant. He's an ex Mormon. He grew up in San Diego. He's an attorney. He had never spent more than one week in New York City at a time.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Really?
[00:12:24] Speaker B: Like not one week, like just bare, barely.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: So you moved out there and that's where you met him?
[00:12:30] Speaker B: I met him in la. Yeah, I met him. I met him in LA during.
But I said to him, hey, like, I had a hit, that I don't think we want to be in LA and wait for our house to be rebuilt. Something about that. First of all, I didn't believe what they were saying about the air quality at that time. Like I really.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: What were they saying?
[00:12:47] Speaker B: Well, they just, they were saying safe in la. I'm talking about la. They're saying, you know, it's safe, but they weren't doing all the proper testing. And so whatever. I just got a hit that I was like, I don't think that's gonna feel good. And I was gonna be. I was about to lock into like a one year lease on a house in a different part of town.
And I just was like, I don'.
I don't like this idea. And I just said, what do you think about going? And I have to say my friends gifted me their apartment for the month of February right after the fire.
And they said, go, stay there. We're not there the month of February. It's all yours. And it was in West Chelsea. It was in Chelsea area. And I fell in love with that neighborhood again because when I left.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: I completely agree.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: When I left in 2003, there was no High Line, there was no little island, there was no west side highway built up. It was such a different. It was kind of shithole. It was kind of now with the art galleries, I mean, it's just such an amazing part of town. So it was when I was there during the month of February of 2025, reeling, like, literally licking my wounds and trying to figure out where we're gonna go. My friend who's a realtor, showed me around at places and I just found this apartment. I bought it. I bought it with the insurance. Now where we live now.
Yeah, I bought this.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: I mean, I don't know where you live, but I saw your videos, you know, I've seen your page, you know. Yeah, I don't want to, like, every posture be like, Kelly's crazy, you know.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Oh, no, no, no. And I share because I want, like, I, if I can, like, if I can share with people, like how, like, I am really resilient. I, like bounce back really fast and I land on my feet and, you know, I have this Great partner who was willing to just take a leap of faith. And yeah, we. We landed in a big way, like New York. I mean, I feel like it's such a great time to be a New Yorker.
I mean, I know times are tough. Like, I know so many people are going through so much hardship right now, and I recognize that.
And I also, like, appreciate how blessed I am and how I had insurance. I had really appropriate insurance that I got the money right away and was able to lock in this apartment and settle again.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Can you tell us the story of what happened in Malibu, like, to your home for us? Yeah. What were you doing? What happened? Tell me the.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: So I was home that day. I was still doing my podcast. I did two seasons of a podcast. And. And I literally did the very last.
And it was planned. The last interview that I did was the day before the fire in my podcast studio in my house. So I was there the next morning.
[00:15:20] Speaker A: And you were living there how long at this.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: We were living there almost four years. But I owned the place. I owned the land since 2013.
The house. Can I curse on this thing?
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I can.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: The house was the shit. And anyone who looks at it on my Instagram it even better in person. It was a vibe.
It was a hub for so many people that I care about.
We had so many parties and sound baths and healings and gatherings and just my husband and I getting stoned every night, looking at our sunset, drinking a gin and tonic.
It was the place where I. It was the place that I'd built from everything I'd earned. And it took seven and a half years to build.
And it was like the pinnacle of where we get to end up for the rest of our lives. We had two rocking chairs that sat on the edge of our property, overlooking this very special Surf Riders beach view. And your dog, you know, and my dog. My. My dog Dolly. And it was just such a magical spot. And yeah, so on that day on January 7th, we, you know, I saw the smoke from my deck. I saw, you know, and it. It was 12 miles from our house, Temescal Canyon, which is where the fire started, literally is 12 miles. Not only is it 12 miles away, it is 12 miles in the most densely populated, highly affluent neighborhood. Like, you can't imagine, like the. The level of homes and Sprint businesses and the. The idea still to this day to say it out loud, that that fire traveled to our house within 24 hours and burned it down. It was by 6:45am Our house was on fire and almost burned to the ground at that point.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Was it terrifying?
[00:16:58] Speaker B: It was totally terrifying.
[00:17:00] Speaker A: So were you scared of getting trapped within?
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Well, so here's the thing. So, so we had like a, like a fire defense system in place. So we had gotten.
That was basically like a, like powered by a lawn, lawn mower motor. And you use this, this thing and you put it, the thing in your pool and you spread out the fire hoses that are actual firefighters hoses and basically you fight the fire like you. Because usually when they have these fires. Now I'm new ish to Malibu and that I didn't. I hadn't been through evacuations other than the one right before it, three weeks prior to. But I felt very comfortable using the system. We'd been trained by these firefighters.
We knew what to do. They say when the wildfire comes through, it kind of takes.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Is it like required to get trained?
[00:17:47] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no, it's not.
You have to have a pool in order to have this system.
And I'd done my research on it and we felt very comfortable. And so they would explain that when a fire comes through, it basically takes like about a half hour for it to go past your house.
And then you come out and you stay in your house and then you put it out with the embers. I mean it sounds crazy, it sound ridiculous that I'm saying this, but in the case of this fire, this was like unlike any fire they had ever seen. The winds were out of control. It was like tornado like winds. And it just took on this beast of a situation and we would have died. I mean there were people at the bottom of our hill, the canyon over, that died staying to fight the fire. So we know that we did the right thing in leaving, but we didn't leave for a really long time and we didn't pack because we weren't leaving. So we didn't do any preparation. So it was.
That's kind of what I kicked myself over is that I didn't get the things, the completely priceless things, you know, my photo albums, my memorabilia, you know, like I can't. My artwork, my, you know, my kids, my grandparents photo albums, my, you know, like the list goes on and on and on of the things I could have put in the back of my car if I had planned. But we were hoping to stay. And so we left at 8 o' clock at night. We were there all day. At one point we went to my neighbors because we thought we needed more gas for this motor to use. Cause we were hosing down our property and our garden and the roof and everything. And my husband was siphoning, trying to siphon gas from a truck.
I have video of him sucking, trying to suck gas out.
He wasn't successful doing that, but it was like Armageddon.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Gosh.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: But we survived and our, our neighbors on either side of us survived. We are in the position to be able to rebuild, which a lot of people in the situation are not. And it's so sad, it is so tragic. A lot of people were underinsured or didn't have insurance. They were dropped from their insurance. I know. Story after story.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: I've heard that too.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: It breaks my heart. And I have to say, Malibu is, I mean, I love New York. So it's like, it's a both. And like I equally cherish New York City and, and the city of Malibu.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: Did I read, did I see a story where someone found. Bought a package to you or something?
[00:20:16] Speaker B: Oh, the photos. Yeah.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Can you tell us about that?
[00:20:18] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, hang on one second.
[00:20:19] Speaker A: Yeah, take your time.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Like my life is a movie. My life, my entire life feels like it is. This never, like never knowing what's gonna come around the corner for me. And yeah, so a woman reached out. This must have been like three or four months ago, we were settled in New York and we've kind of, you know, made peace with the fact that I've lost all of my photo albums, all my cause my children were born before iPhones and the icloud, so I don't have any of those pictures anymore. And I, you know, it's like, what are you gonna. You gotta just like shake it off and move on.
And this woman out of the blue on social media reached out and said, hey, does anybody know how to get in touch with Ricki Lake? I found some photos at a flea market and I believe they're hers.
And of course, you know, social media, you can find people in five seconds. And I'm very present on my socials.
I could not believe what she was showing me. She had a box, a giant shoebox full, I think boxes actually. But like the ones that were pertinent to me were like filled one shoebox. They were apparently a family member of my ex husband, the father of my children.
She must have dumped them. I don't know, you know how they ended up at the Pasadena flea market. But this woman, Patty Scanlon, my new friend, she likes to paint from photographs. And so for some reason she went through and found this box, saw pictures of me, wanted to paint me she said I have a face that she likes to paint. I don't know what that means. And then she recognized that it was me and she got them back to me. And it was like this felt like a miracle. It just felt. I mean, I was so deeply moved by the magic. The magic, the treasures of yours. It was so unbelievable. Yeah. And it's like priceless that it came back into my lap. And these weren't my actual pictures, so people were confused. They thought she went and looted at my. Someone looted these pictures? No, everything at my house was destroyed. Not one thing survived in my house. But these pictures were belonging to someone else that had dumped them.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: I saw a video too. Like, you seen your dogs for the first time or something back in Malibu, like coming, like. Oh, I think it was something.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: No, I think it was my dog seeing my property.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Oh, your dog property?
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. There was video of her just like, kind of not knowing what to, like, where. I recognize this place. I smell, you know, it smells familiar, but it looks different. Yeah, yeah, it's. It's all been. And then look, I'm wearing this thing, this necklace. This is ashes from my house.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: I was gonna ask you that.
[00:22:49] Speaker B: This.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Yes. Tell people the story.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: This. Okay. So this is a company, a beautiful company.
Really?
[00:22:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: Eternova. It's called Eternova. They are the loveliest people. And I found them through my friend Amanda Kloots, who lost her husb during COVID I don't remember him. Nick Cordero. Just the most tragic story. Losing her.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: He was like in Broadway and stuff.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Incredible Broadway star, 40 years old.
Succumbed to Covid and her story. We have become very, very good friends and I adore her. But she connected me to Eternova and they offered to do this for me and my friend John, Bonnie, who's my dear friend, who kind of looks after my property and helps me in every way with my house and with the rebuild. He went and got the samples because I was out of town. I didn't go back to my house after the fire. I just. I was up in Ojai and he went and got samples of different ashes in different areas of my house. So my bedroom, the area where my second husband was buried or his ashes were spread, got some of those. My dog's ashes. Like, he just got a bunch of the ashes and gave it to them. And it's like a year long process.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: I'm not gonna butcher the way it's done. I don't remember. It's like through.
In carbon. It's this high heat that basically turns ashes into a diamond. And so in my. I wanted it to be green. They made it green. They made it an Asher cut. It's super tiny, but it's. It is so special to me. And the back has a phoenix on it and the date of the fire.
And I wear it. I don't take it off. I love it. It's a reminder of just how much beauty can come from devastation.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: And. Yeah, I saw the movie. The video. The movie. I saw the video that you did, and it's. It's beautiful. I was like, wow, this is really.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: It's. It's. I mean, honestly, I'm. I'm so. So. I'm so blessed. Like, as much as I've been through a lot of trauma and loss in my life, I feel like always there's a gift that comes from around the corner, you know, whether it's a lesson or.
Yeah. I mean, it's the way I choose to see it.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: You know, that's interesting. You know, just for a split second, you know, the reason I moved to New York is because a good friend of mine passed away. Sandy. And I had some, you know, bad times in Orlando, just financially, blah, blah, blah. But had I not gone through these terrible times, I wouldn't be in New York City, you know, than ever.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Oh, I feel the same way.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: My friend Sandy.
[00:25:15] Speaker B: I feel the same way.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: Happy right now for him.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Oh, yes. He says, sandy did you a solid. May he or she rest in peace.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: She asked. She's amazing.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: No, my husband and I, we pinch each other. We pinch each other. We pinch ourselves all the time. We wait. We. Well, we do a little. We do that, too, but we really do. We would never be on this crazy adventure here in New York. We are seeing all the shows.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: All.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: I mean, I am having the time of my life, seeing almost everything I love.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: I was just watching one of your videos, too, about all the Broadway. Somebody was saying this, this or this play. But.
[00:25:55] Speaker B: Oh, I was voting on which. Which they were asking me which I like better.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: I mean, I just saw a great show yesterday. Joe Turner's coming. Gone. Oh, my.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: You saw it, Jay.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: Oh, my God. You saw it.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: I didn't see it.
[00:26:07] Speaker B: You have to go see it. You have to go see it.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: Death becomes her. You were.
[00:26:10] Speaker B: Oh, my God. I've seen times, and I'm trying to go for the fourth time. I want to see it. It's closing. It's closing on the 20.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Jay, we gotta go.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: June 20th. Something. I'm trying to go to the last taping, last performance. Cause I'm obsessed with that show. I'm obsessed with Jennifer Simard. It's brilliant. I can't believe I, I think they're closing and they're gonna go on tour. Like I think it's, it's gonna have a life. I'm so sad it's leaving Broadway, but it's going to have a life. Well, a great show.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: There's one show I just saw and I loved it and I'm sad that it was very short lived, which was Beaches.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Oh, I didn't get to see it.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: I did see it. I really enjoyed it.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: I like that actress. Jessica of Law of.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: Yeah, she was really good.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: I was really. Yeah, I didn't get to see it.
Yes.
[00:26:54] Speaker A: But Hairspray musical, that, that was in the, the running for like you saying which one? You said, oh, Hairspray.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: Oh, Hairspray is always going to be era. Hairspray is an amazing musical.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Let's talk about, about how you got into Hairspray.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Okay, real quick.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: What I was mentioning to Jay earlier today is what I absolutely love about you in so many ways. You know, that you're amazing is that you are kind of yourself. You're. You're self made, you know what I mean? You're, you're this, this girl from the Bronx, New York City, whatever has, you know, Hastings on the Hudson. And, and you made it. You really made it.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: And I don't have a famous uncle. That's my whole body in the business. I don't come from any money. I grew up middle class.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: It just proves you have real talent, you know, it's not because parent or someone.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: It wasn't a Nepo baby.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: That's, that's what I was gonna say. So I'm glad you said.
[00:27:50] Speaker B: And my kids, my kids aren't Nepo babies. They are, you know, my kids are not in the business at all. One's a school teacher and a, and an artist.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: But, but you did this all yourself. You built your, your empire, so to speak, by yourself. So you're in college and you know, just. In New York.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: I was a freshman. No, not in New York State. I was at Ithaca College. I was a musical theater major. A very bad musical theater student. And I wasn't happy. It was 1986. 87. So it was 1987.
It was the end of my final, my first year. It was finals week and I got wind that they were looking for a fat girl who could dance for a new John Waters movie. I Didn't know who John Waters was. I just heard movies, and I heard fat girl. And then I could definitely move for a big girl.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Well, Jay doesn't know this. You know, she's amazing, and she looks great, but she. She was a little bit bigger when
[00:28:46] Speaker B: she was a little bit. I was a little. I was a circle.
I was big as a house, but I had to be. I'm so glad that I was. I was £200. So I was a. I was. I was large Marge. And John Waters. I met him at the audition. I drove down. It was five hours from Ithaca to meet with John.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: And he picked me. And he changed my entire. He opened up my entire world. I had never been around openly gay people until I was on the set of Hairspray. I was, you know, freshman at school. I was in love with this guy.
[00:29:17] Speaker A: This was a different time, but go ahead.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: I was in love with Scott Dexter. And he wasn't out yet. He was gay, but I was fat. And I thought, oh, he doesn't like me. Cause I'm a big girl. Turns out he was gay but hadn't come out yet. So, like, I had just never been exposed to. To all different types of people. So I feel like living in Baltimore that summer, May. I moved to Baltimore in May of 87.
And my whole world unfolded. Working with Don vine, working with Debbie Harry, Sammy Bono, and I mean, the list goes on and on. And all these kids, we were all young, and it was the summer of a lifetime. And it was a movie that.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: What year again? I'm sorry.
[00:29:53] Speaker B: 1987. It came out in 88.
[00:29:56] Speaker A: I watched it a few times over the years.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: It still holds up, and it's still so relevant.
Just obviously with race relations and just, like, where we are as a society. I mean, it's still. The messaging is so. Still so important. And the fact that it's lived on in all these different iterations. And she's like, the consummate role model for young people and underdogs everywhere, and it's amazing.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: What was her. The rhymey timey name you had? Like, Tracy Turnblad. Tracy Turnblatt. Yeah. Tracy Turnblatt.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:30:25] Speaker A: I was gonna say Tracy Turnblad. I was planning on saying that when I first saw you today, but, you know, 57. I forgot.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Yeah, but, yeah, that's tracks. We forget everything.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: Do people ever bring that up to you?
[00:30:35] Speaker B: Ever say they mentioned Tracy? Yeah, they. They know the name of the character, but mostly they know my name.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Like, in public. If you talk show. Does anybody Ever bring it up or.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Yeah, they bring up all different parts of my career. And it's so fun that I've been around for almost 40 years. Hairspray is going to be 40 years old in 2028, so. And in fact. In fact, John Waters, the. The. The Hairspray is coming out on Criterion. The Criterion Collection. You know, the.
Have you heard of Criterion? That's where they break. Have you heard of. Yeah, you have, right? It's a big deal. It's a huge honor. And so at the end of the month, I'm doing a couple. We're doing a screening of Hairspray at the ifc, which is where I first saw Hairspray before it came out. They did a screening for us there at that same theater. It was called the.
Not the Village Vanguard. It was called something else back then. I can't.
Oh, gosh, this is my brain shit. Anyway, we're gonna be there.
I think it's on the 20s.
And then we're doing something at Barnes and St. Noble for the opening of the. For the release of the Criterion.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: How cool to work with John Waters and Divine. You know, I mean, the coolest. They're just.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: He's the coolest. Divine was the greatest.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:42] Speaker B: Honestly, it was the m. It was just.
[00:31:44] Speaker A: Did you keep in contact with.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Well, Divine died eight days after the movie opened.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Of a heart attack. Right.
[00:31:50] Speaker B: He died of heart failure in his sleep. And so that was like ob. You know, the most tragic thing that happen. It was like his first real. Real huge hit. And the fact that he couldn't live to really enjoy it and reap the benefits of it was totally devastating.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: How about John Waters?
[00:32:07] Speaker B: John Waters is great. He just turned 80. We just celebrated his 80th birthday.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: And. I mean, did you. Was. This was a family created from that?
[00:32:14] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: I'm sure.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Yeah. He calls it the Dreamland Family. They're all the same crew.
So I did. I did many movies with him. The main ones, Crybaby. I did Serial Mom.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: I actually love Crybaby. I thought it was really good.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: It's great. It's great. I mean, people love that one. One. Yeah, It's. It's. It's. It was so much fun to work, you know, and we did mostly night shoots on that film. And it was four months of living in a hotel with all the cast.
[00:32:37] Speaker A: And I was gonna ask you, I mean, were you a dancer before?
[00:32:42] Speaker B: No.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: Hairspray?
[00:32:43] Speaker B: No. No.
[00:32:44] Speaker A: Because I wasn't a. Dancing.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: No, but it was like dancing like. Like, you Know, still stick dancing. It was like.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: So was it kind of like ad libbing dancing or how does that.
[00:32:53] Speaker B: I mean. No, I mean, there was definitely like. Like a technique to it, but it wasn't like ballroom dancing. When I did Dancing with the Stars, you know, it's like a totally different thing. Yeah. So I was definitely not a trained dancer, but I was someone that could move well, considering my size.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: Because, I mean, the show is a lot of dancing.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: It was a ton of dancing. And I kept losing weight through the filming of the movie.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: They didn't want you to.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: No, because it would change the. It would mess up the continuity.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: Right. So how long did it take to film?
[00:33:19] Speaker B: Hairspray took eight weeks to film.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: That's quick, right?
[00:33:22] Speaker B: It was, well there. It was a relatively low budget, like 2 million. It was more money than he'd ever had for a movie. But it was like, I think it was 2.7 million to make Hairspray. Ah, yeah.
[00:33:33] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:33:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Yeah. That takes me back, you know, to the mid-80s too, and remembering John Waters and Divine. And.
[00:33:40] Speaker B: Yeah, John is still very. He is busier than ever. He tours 50 cities a year. He has this incredible visual art career. He's a writer. He. I mean, he's just. He is such a international treasure and he's so unique. I mean, I was at his birthday party and the people that all sort of gravitate to him and have been like, loyal, just witnesses to his genius. He's incredible.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: So now dancing, we were talking about then you go to Dancing with the
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Stars many years, decades later. Yeah, I did that 14 years ago, and I had said no. They had asked me, like every season and I was like, no, no, no. It sounded like too much work. I wouldn't be good at it, blah, blah, blah. And then I was going back to do a second talk show. And it was during that time that I thought, you know what? It actually would be really good to be back out there in the public eye, in the mainstream and, you know, and maybe it'll help the talk show. So I did it for that reason. And I had really one of the most incredible, transformative experiences where working with Derek Hough, I had the best partner and I became a ballroom dancer. And my body transformed and I got so strong and fit. It was incredible.
[00:34:56] Speaker A: Did the tango perfectly.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: I did. I did do the tango perfectly. I got the first tens of the season.
It was amazing. And my cast that season was really, really good. Like Chaz Bono. Okay. The first trans person to be on the show. Hope solo Was that famous soccer goalie David Arquette. Carson Kressley, Kristin Cavallari, China Phillips.
Who else? Rob Kardashian.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. He was.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: It was quite the bunch. And I got third place and I got the highest scores of the season.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: Third place is really good, though.
[00:35:38] Speaker B: I had to be third place because the first place winner was a war hero burn victim. And he was a great dancer legitimately, like, hands down, he should have won. I'm glad he won. And Rob Kardashian got second because he had all that following on social media at the time. Anyway, it was amazing experience.
No, no, no. I'm so happy with the journey and it's such a special experience. You really do become a family doing that show. And I learned so much. And I was pushed to the limit and turns out I like being pushed.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
I think. I don't know. You were great on the show.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:36:15] Speaker A: I loved it. I loved it. I really did. I love Dancing with the Stars.
[00:36:17] Speaker B: It's a great show. It's one of the. I think it's the best. You know, I'm a reality freak. I watch everything. Survivor, the 50th season was so great. I think, hands down, Dancing with the Stars, those live shows are so incredible.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: The way they produce them, I used to watch all the time. Unfortunately, I don't watch that much TV anymore because of the way that we world is with my social media and stuff.
[00:36:39] Speaker B: And you're busy. You're too busy to watch tv?
[00:36:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't watch that much tv. No. You know, I just. Because I'm always trying to create or make the podcast or, you know, do videos for an event or something.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: That's why you have to be a lady of leisure like me.
That's what I call myself right now, even though I do. I work. I just made a movie. I just acted again. But I am. I do consider myself a lady of leisure.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: Good for you. Well, you deserve it. You too. I mean, you have worked hard.
[00:37:08] Speaker B: I worked hard. I worked hard.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: Worked really hard to get where you are.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: And I really, like, I feel like I've cracked the code for my own happiness and even of the world. Like, don't get me started. Like, the world is falling apart and it feels like the end is near in a lot of ways. And I really focus on my joy and appreciating life, living in gratitude, waking up every day as, like, another opportunity. Like, what is going to happen? What is going to unfold for me today? And yeah, it's. It's it's the way I choose to to live.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: Wa tonight's Manhattan Henge. You ever watch Manhattan Henge?
[00:37:45] Speaker B: What's that?
[00:37:46] Speaker A: You don't know what Manhattan Henge is?
[00:37:47] Speaker B: No. What's that?
[00:37:48] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: I'm going to watch the game. I'm watching OKC in the spurs tonight because you wanted to go game seven.
That they are tired for our New York Knicks.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: That's smart. That's. That's right. That's right. Go Nicks. Yeah, go Nicks.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: Even though I feel like a, I feel like a fraud because I'm a Clippers fan, I'm a long time like I was a season ticket holder for many years, the Clippers, but now that I'm back in New York and it is so exciting to root for these
[00:38:16] Speaker A: Knicks, I love the vibe, the energy.
[00:38:19] Speaker B: It is palpable in this town right now.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: I love the feel how it feels.
Everybody's going to.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: Yes, it's great.
[00:38:28] Speaker A: You know, a moment ago you mentioned your second talk show. Do you mean the Ricki Lake show a second time or.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: It was, I mean, the concept was supposed to be different. So I, you know, I finished my show, my first show in 2004.
It stopped running in 2004.
And then, you know, I started making documentaries. So that just, that has been what I consider to be my life's work. Particularly the film I made about birth called the Business of Being Born.
[00:38:55] Speaker A: Can you tell us about birth?
[00:38:55] Speaker B: That. Yeah, that's a film. I mean, of all the things I've done and I've done a really, like, I've had such a, like a beautiful array of different things I've done in my career, but that has been the most personal.
It was all of my own money. You know, I had to finance the whole thing. It took four years of my life, my home birth, water birth is in the film.
The issue of not necessarily home birth but like choices in childbirth was a subject matter that was very near and my dear to my heart. And the fact that it's been so impactful. It's been almost 20 years since it came out and it's still kind of the seminal film that people watch when they're having a baby. And I'm super proud of it. So, you know, my career took a turn where I focused on this documentary film work for many, many years. And then I went back, I had this opportunity to go back and do a talk show again. And at the time, after putting out the Business of Being born and feeling like I had a voice and had More say. I went back thinking we were gonna do something more along the lines of a Phil Donahue type of show. Like elevated content, you know, provocative conversation that was like, you know, getting, getting subject matters like covered. And I don't know, I had a real vision and that, that wasn't what panned out with the show.
And it was ultimately really disappointing. But, you know, I won the Emmy for my work on that show and it was.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: You got the Emmy for Ricky. Was it for the documentary or Ricky Lake?
[00:40:28] Speaker B: I got it for the, for the talk show.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:30] Speaker B: Get burned in the fire. I lost my Emmy in the fire.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: What happened? What happened?
[00:40:34] Speaker B: It burned my Emmy, my award.
[00:40:36] Speaker A: Oh, did it really?
[00:40:37] Speaker B: Yeah, along with everything else.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Oh my gosh.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: I had written them wanting to get another one, but I never heard back. It's. So, yeah, I don't, whatever, I don't need it. As long as it's on my Wikipedia, I don't care.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: So. And the other. Another documentary I know about is a weed. The. What's it called?
[00:40:53] Speaker B: We the People. Yeah, it's about cannabis and focuses children with, with cancer, with pediatric cancer and you know, these specific weed follow like six children and put them on cannabis oil while they're on Western medicine as well. And it's, it's, it's fascinating. I mean it really does take the stigma away. It's not about getting high. It's about the medicinal elements of this plant and, and how it's been completely just.
What's the word?
Just. Just stigmatized. I mean, it just, you know, it really is such a healing modality for so many. And the fact that, you know, it's, It's a Schedule 1 drug. It's not federally legal. It's. It's, it's crazy. So that was a film that took six years. We made another film and my partner is Abby Epstein, my director, who partners with me on all these projects. And then we did one on birth control which actually never sold. It was. It's another super important film about just, just choice when it comes to, to what we're putting in our bodies. Hormonal birth control and some of the side effects that, that people should know about. And so that, that's a really. Another. A film where we pull back the veil on a subject matter that's super important to, to so many women.
We couldn't sell it because Big Pharma is sort of tied to everything.
But yeah, so I made a bunch of films. We did a follow up series to the Business of Being Born and, and yeah, there's a lot of them.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: Wow. You've done some really amazing work, you know, I think it's fascinating.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:42:21] Speaker A: You know, I want to tell you something, too, that's kind of interesting about the Ricki Lake show, which is kind of funny.
I was actually on it.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: No, you weren't.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:33] Speaker B: No, you weren't. My first show.
[00:42:35] Speaker A: No, no, no, no.
[00:42:36] Speaker B: Just a second.
[00:42:37] Speaker A: Long time ago. Yeah.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: Wait. No, no. My first. The first Ricki Lake show here in New York. What? You year.
I won't remember because I've did so many of them.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I know you won't remember.
[00:42:46] Speaker B: You were a guest on the show.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Just a brief. Just a brief. Brief.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: Okay. What. I mean, yeah.
[00:42:51] Speaker A: So were you living in Orlando at
[00:42:53] Speaker B: the time we flew you in?
[00:42:55] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: Were you on to confront your cheating baby daddy?
[00:42:59] Speaker A: No, nothing like that. It was. It was. Yeah. I love that you were saying that. It was nothing topical. It was nothing like, crazy.
[00:43:07] Speaker B: Was it fun? Did you have a good time?
[00:43:09] Speaker A: I had a really good time.
[00:43:10] Speaker B: Did you meet me?
[00:43:11] Speaker A: I did. It was only for a brief second, though. It. My. My segment was a sec. My twin brothers. Me and my twin brother. Okay. Yeah.
[00:43:18] Speaker B: So did you take your shirt off and we had, like, a contest of, like, who's the hottest twin? No, I would have won that.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: It was a New Year's Eve, dating games.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:43:28] Speaker A: And there was a bunch of people. So it was just. It wasn't topical. It was just fun. And my. I think I was on it because my friend Steve. Drew. Steven. Drew, Drew. He worked for some talk shows. He was a producer and stuff.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:43:41] Speaker A: And I think he mentioned that I have some friends, you know, twins, you know, whatever. And so I think somehow, through the grapevine. Wow. That's how we got on.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: And we flew you in and we put you in. What year was this?
[00:43:51] Speaker A: This was, I'm guessing, nine.
What. What was this? When did the show start?
[00:43:58] Speaker B: 93 to 04.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: It was in the 90s.
[00:44:01] Speaker B: So was I pregnant?
[00:44:03] Speaker A: No.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: Was. Had. I had a baby.
[00:44:05] Speaker A: I don't think you had your baby.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. So it was pre 97.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So it was. It was just New Year's Eve.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: Was I fat? Was I skinny? Did I have short hair? Long hair?
[00:44:14] Speaker A: Gosh, that's such a good question. It was.
I. I think your hair was shorter.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: I think you had lost some weight.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: Okay, so post Mrs. Winterbourne. I'm gonna guess it's 95, 96.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: Yeah, probably. Yeah. And so, you know, I got the phone call, and they're like, this is so and so from the Ricki Lake show. And I knew instantly, like, it was true, you know? Cause it's back then. Whatever. And I'm like. Like, they're like, would you. Your twin brother, like to be on the show? And I said, okay, you know my cool. But what I do remember, too, is how sweet you were.
So it was dating games, and there was, like, there was a Playgirl model on there. There was a couple other really pretty girls. And then the twist was me and my twin brother, like, picking. Whatever.
[00:44:57] Speaker B: Okay. We sent you on a date or something.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
No, you know what? That's a good question. I don't know. We just met and liked a dating game.
[00:45:06] Speaker B: Okay. Fun.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: And it was really fun. And I remember you just being very personable, and you treated every. You treated everybody really, really kind and really, really nice.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: And I remember hearing that. Yeah.
I like to think that I still do that.
[00:45:27] Speaker A: Yeah, you were really.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: You were.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: Were. Yeah, you were just. I. I left the show being like, wow, she's really sweet. And we went to the Harley Davidson Cafe afterwards for dinner. Okay. And I think you went with us.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: I feel like I have a recollection of going there and taking. It was a picture on a motorcycle. Yeah, motorcycle there. I can't. I can't believe I'm pulling this out of my ass. But, yes, I actually have, I think,
[00:45:54] Speaker A: because it was the whole. It was a big table.
[00:45:55] Speaker B: It was in, like, Times Square. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: Yeah. So you went to dinner. Dinner with us, too.
[00:46:00] Speaker B: Amazing.
[00:46:01] Speaker A: You were. And you were just.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: I can't believe you buried the lead that this. That we have this history together and you didn't start with that.
Nice to see you again.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I just remember you're really nice. Even, like, on the show, you're like, good one, Kelly, because I said something really sarcastic.
[00:46:16] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:46:17] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, and it was.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: It was just really so fun.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Yeah, you're just like, good one, Kelly. That was fun, you know.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Wow, that's.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: That.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: That's hilarious.
[00:46:26] Speaker A: The show.
[00:46:27] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:46:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Isn't that funny?
[00:46:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:46:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And so, you know, I've talked. You know, I've had some celebrities. You know, we've had some celebrities on this show.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: You had Mom Donnie here. Wow.
[00:46:38] Speaker A: Oh, not yet. Not mom diamond here one day.
[00:46:41] Speaker B: Oh, you haven't had him here?
[00:46:42] Speaker A: Well, I've talked to him in person and done interviews around and.
[00:46:45] Speaker B: Got it.
[00:46:45] Speaker A: And selected spots in the city. Got it. But, yeah, that'd be cool. But, you know, and Mer from, from practical jokers and you. And you're awesome and. But, you know, you've always been really cool.
[00:46:55] Speaker B: Thank you. You know, and what you see is what you get.
[00:46:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
So that's.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: Anyone that knew me back when I did Hairspray all those years ago. I'm pretty much the same person, you know.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, you were, you were. You're really cool. I remember going to dinner and just, you know, you were, it was awesome. It was just casual fun, no big deal, you know, it was cool.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: So real quick though. You've been very upfront about your, your plastic surgery.
[00:47:21] Speaker B: I have.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: Let's talk about that for a minute.
[00:47:23] Speaker B: Okay. What do you want to know?
[00:47:24] Speaker A: I just.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: Name is Dr. Alan Fox Culad, would you say?
[00:47:27] Speaker A: Oh, that's his name.
[00:47:27] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:47:28] Speaker A: It's in la. He's in la, right?
[00:47:30] Speaker B: Beverly Hills. Yeah. And he's amazing. And yeah, I had the best experience.
[00:47:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I think, you know, I mentioned this to you before the show. I remember when you, you know, showed your plastic surgery results, you know, and I just, you know, I saw it on your page. I saw your, your how to, how do I word it? Just your plastic surgery on your page. And I thought that is the best plastic surgery I've ever seen. Thank you. Because, and I mentioned this to you earlier because it just looks so natural, you know, it's, it's, you know, people sometimes when they get plastic surgery, you can tell and it just looks bad.
It is so natural. And I want.
[00:48:09] Speaker B: I don't have a scar on my face.
[00:48:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it's amazing.
[00:48:11] Speaker B: Nothing. And I don't have any makeup on. I told you.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it doesn't.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: I don't wear a lot of makeup in my own day to day life. And I have, I have, I've been blessed genetically with good skin. I've always had where I don't have pores really, that you can see. And so I kind of went in with like, I think being a really good candidate. And for me, my issue was my, the skin on my chin was hanging. I had lost 40 pounds without drugs on my own. It took, you know, a period of time and I had maintained this weight loss, but this was hanging and it's just, it bothered me. And while I was like going through dealing with like, you know, this, just noticing it in the mirror and just like, I don't like in pictures how I see this. My girlfriend, who had a great experience with this, she had done all the homework for me, she had gone to see all the doctors around the country. She had the money to go to anyone she wanted. And she chose this guy.
And he's young, you know, he was. He's starting out. He's. He'd only been doing it for like 10 years.
And she chose him. And he hadn't had, like, necessarily famous people at that point, and she chose him. And I saw her right after her surgery, and I thought she looked incredible. Beyond that, she was euphoric. And I said, I'll have what she's having.
[00:49:29] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: And I went to him and I.
I booked the next available appointment. And July will be two years since I had my surgery.
Wow. And my healing process was amazing. My experience with him and, yeah, I had. I had, you know, I had a deep plane, lower face and neck lift. That is what I had. I didn't do my eyes. I didn't do. And I did a CO2 laser, which is like a skin, like where they basically, I guess, burn your skin. I don't know if you know what the process is, but it, like takes. It really is good for your skin.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: I think that's.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: And that's what I had.
[00:50:01] Speaker A: You said that you did it to your eyes because that a lot of times is what makes people really tell that you had. Your people had real work.
[00:50:08] Speaker B: And I let him. Like, I went to him, had the consult, and I said, what do you think I should do? And he told me, and I did what he said. And so I didn't need that bluff. You know, they do those upper, lower. I don't, I don't. I didn't need that because the way my eyes are struck, you know, in his opinion. And so I wasn't going to do anything, anything that he didn't think I needed.
[00:50:28] Speaker A: So good and so natural looking.
[00:50:30] Speaker B: And for me, it wasn't about looking younger. It's not about, you know, turning back the clock because I have gray hair. I don't, you know, I own, like, my age. And I actually am super proud of who I am at this point in my life. I just didn't want that appendage hanging from the bottom of my chin. And so I fixed it.
[00:50:48] Speaker A: Yes. You know, I mean, when I look at my pictures now, as we get older, this is the part that I don't like.
[00:50:55] Speaker B: And that's, you know, well, I know a guy.
[00:50:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And I remember seeing you, you know, when you posted it, I was like, that's it. That's exactly how I would like to have that.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: His last name, Foulad. F O U L A D. And he's very busy I like to think I have a little something to do with that, but he's special. He's special. He's a master. He's a master at that, at faces. And I've referred. I can't even on hands and toes. I have referred many, many.
[00:51:23] Speaker A: I know.
[00:51:23] Speaker B: And then people that I know through people, and all of them are super happy.
[00:51:28] Speaker A: Wow. Well, it looks great. You look great. Thank you. You look great.
[00:51:31] Speaker B: How funny that I'm the poster child for that. Like, it's so funny to me that, like, people are, like, calling him, saying they want the Ricki Lake. I mean, it's hilarious.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:51:39] Speaker B: It's so funny.
[00:51:40] Speaker A: That's what I want.
[00:51:41] Speaker B: This is what I'll say.
[00:51:43] Speaker A: But thanks for stopping by, Ricky.
[00:51:44] Speaker B: My pleasure.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: This was awesome.
[00:51:45] Speaker B: It's fun to meet you, and I appreciate your feed, and you're awesome.
[00:51:49] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:51:50] Speaker B: You know, I appreciate us sharing this mutual love for this great city.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: Yep. I appreciate you. I. And I love to feel the love that you have for the city, too. Oh, real quick, I want to ask you. You know, you take the subway, you know, asked you earlier, and I think it's important for our guests to hear how.
Especially for other women, to hear how women feel on the subway. But just being a celebrity in general,
[00:52:11] Speaker B: taking the subway, safest. It is efficient.
You know, my kids live in Queens. I can get.
[00:52:17] Speaker A: Didn't you just tell me, too, that you only take the subway, too?
[00:52:20] Speaker B: 95 of the time. But I take a city bike. I take a city bike. I take the bus. There's a. A bus that is outside my door.
[00:52:26] Speaker A: MTA buses.
[00:52:27] Speaker B: I. I take all forms of public transportation in the city, and I prefer it because sitting in a car and sitting in traffic is just not my jam. And I love where I live. I'm like, 20 minutes to get to Times Square by the. I take the ace.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: It is.
[00:52:42] Speaker A: That's my train.
[00:52:43] Speaker B: It's incredible. Oh, yeah. You take it to Washington Heights.
[00:52:45] Speaker A: Y.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: It is. No, it's. It's. It's amazing. And honestly, I've. I've never felt unseen, safe, you know,
[00:52:51] Speaker A: I think it's important for you to hear that, for people to hear that. You said that. You know, again, especially women, too. But, you know, you're a celebrity, too, and you're more noticeable, which is really cool.
[00:52:59] Speaker B: No one even looks up. Everyone's in their own world on the subway.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: That's New Yorkers. They're like, oh, there's Mickey Lake. But, you know, we're not gonna bother her.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: It very Rarely will someone notice me.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure they notice you, but they're just, they don't say New Yorkers.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: You know, it's, it's. No, it's, it's amazing. This is like, it's a very well run city. I feel like walking through this town, it's like choose your own adventure. You never know who you're going to run into, what experience is going to unfold.
It's the best.
[00:53:30] Speaker A: So, Ricky, before we let you go, we here at the New Yorkers Podcast want to know what it means to you, Ricky Lake, to be a New Yorker.
[00:53:40] Speaker B: Oh my gosh.
I mean, for me, I just feel like very lucky to have had the upbringing here to go to high school here to see this city.
Both for me pre 911 and now post. Coming back all these years later, there's just nothing like it. And I've been lucky enough to travel all over the world, but this is hands down the greatest city in the world.
So it's an honor. It's an honor to be a New Yorker.
[00:54:12] Speaker A: Nicely said.
And you're an amazing New Yorker too. A true New Yorker.
Ricky Lake. Yay.
Thank you for joining us today for this week's episode of the New Yorkers podcast, my friends.
And you can follow Ricky Lake on all of her socials.
Once again, I'm your host Kelly Kopp, also known as New York City Cop, all across my social media. Social media.
Please like and subscribe to the New Yorkers Podcast and you can follow the New Yorkers on social media at the New Yorkers Podcast. You can leave a rating or a comment to let us know how you are enjoying the show. We read through all your comments and DMs so please, we would love to hear from you. Thank you. Galley Feliba, 1611. Hope I'm saying that right, Galley. I talk to Galley all the time. Betty, Jess Cop, who's actually my mom and NYC star. Story time for your kind words on the last episode. If you want to be featured at the end of an episode, leave a rating on Apple Podcasts or a comment on Spotify. And thank you, Marlene Monroe, Loretta Smith and Markall Hannity. Photo for your comments on Facebook and Instagram. Have a lovely day my friends and we'll see you next time. Bye.
[00:55:23] Speaker B: This is the last stop on this train, everyone.
[00:55:26] Speaker A: Please leave the train. Thank you for riding with mta New York City Transit.
