Barbie Kong

Today I sit down with Suzie Leger

Her band is playing tonight at Capybara in Brooklyn www.capybaranyc.com

9:30 -10 pm

And on April the 8th, we are playing at the Bowery

Electric in the East Village :)

Suzie Léger is an award-winning Austrian-Canadian artist, musician, actress and director based in New York City. She received her master’s degree in ‘Transmedia Arts’ from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. There, she acquired expertise in conceptual art, filmmaking, performance and graphic design, weaving together different media for her works. Eager to find new sites of cultural production, methodologies or genres, her artistic analysis focused on the power relation between language and perception. She co-founded the not-for-profit art association Lafin C’estmerde that organized concerts, exhibitions and talks, building a platform to support female artists and entrepreneurs in the Creative Arts in Vienna.

Suzie is fluent in German, English, Portuguese and French. She also lived in São Paulo, Brazil, and London, UK, before moving to New York, where she extended her skills in film and theater at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and in music production at The Juilliard School.

She is the Lead singer and Creative Director of the self-described “lazy-punk” band WHAT WOULD TILDA SWINTON DO and the co-founder of the group’s music publishing company PHG Publishing.

In addition, Suzie is the Assistant Director of the Obie Award-winning theater collaboration PearlDamour for their immersive new production Ocean Filibuster, which has been developed with the A.R.T at Harvard University.

Among her honors and awards, she can count a Ö1 talent grant by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation and a START-stipend of the Austrian Chancellery. Léger also received an honorary award from the ARS ELECTRONICA, the 1st prize of the International Video Art Festival Now&After in Russia, and an award for best short film at the Women’s Film Days Vienna, among others.

The songs featured in the episode are:

Liebesrausch

Apple Tree

Bikerbraut

And you can find all of Suzie's videos on her website: http://suzieleger.com

Today I sit down with the amazing Jaci de Villiers, we talk protest art, Gideon Irving, the playwright, women's rights in South Africa and much much more!

Jacquelyn is a South African award-winning actor, director and playwright and theatre reviewer (Stagebiz.com) now living in New York City. She studied a Bilingual Performer’s Diploma at the University of Cape Town and studied opera under Wendy Fine, Kathleen Quinlin and Sarita Stern. After ten years as a professional actress working predominantly in physical theatre, improvisation, devised productions and original musicals she moved into directing and writing. She created Tweeling Productions in 2002 with husband Gys de Villiers where she co-wrote/wrote and directed 16 original plays and musicals. In 2006 she launched a writing company, The Perfect Pitch with business partner Jocelyn Broderick, specializing in writing television and film scripts, Industrial and corporate theatre productions, and show running for live events and broadcasts. She also has extensive experience as a teacher specializing in improvisation techniques for devising original work, dramaturgy and acting coaching. Jaci currently works on the Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival for the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation, directed Clouds Like Waves by Megan Furniss for NY Winterfest and recently returned from a residency in Prague for Miss Amerika by Mirenka Cechova (NYC Premiere - 2019/2020).

Megan Furniss is a South African born playwright, actor, writer, director and improviser. She has spent all of her life involved in theatre and make-believe.

Megan graduated from the University of Cape Town in 1986 and worked as an actress before starting her own improvisation troupe in Cape Town. She has written and co-written numerous plays and musicals, performed and directed theatre and she improvises and teaches improv. She has self published a novel, and writes short stories for competitions.

The Tent, written in 2009, was published in an anthology of South African and Argentinian plays by Projecto 34˚ South, and was chosen as one of six African plays to be workshopped and showcased at the National Theatre Studio in London in 2011. Drive with Me, a one-woman show written and performed by Megan Furniss, won a Standard Bank Ovation Award at the prestigious Grahamstown National Arts festival in 2013. Megan has also won a Fleur du Cap award for Innovation in Theatre. In 2017 she was nominated for a Fleur du Cap for best supporting actress in The Finkelsteins are Coming to Dinner.

She also achieved critical acclaim for her tiny role in the Showmax smash hit Tali’s Wedding Diary.

Also the population of Johannesburg is 957,441

And the play that Megan mentions is the following:

Niqabi Ninja

Written by Sara Shaarawi

Directed by Megan Furniss

Performed by Bianca Flanders and Lauren Loubser

Photos by Nicky Newman

Today I talk with the wonderful Caren Skibell. Caren is an improvisor, actor, writer and teacher. She has won multiple awards for her writing including Best Festival Audience Pick for the Quo Vadimus Arts AD America Festival for her play Appetite (which I had the honor of being a part of in the original cast). Along with her artistic endeavors Caren is also an educator at Whole Foods and has some amazing information about nutrition. If you are trying to get off sugar as so many of you are, give this a listen. Thanks Caren.

Here are some notes from Caren:

Here are my food ingredients guidelines:

If I can't pronounce it, do I really want to eat it?

If it has more than 5 ingredients, I won’t eat it.

Is it real food? Food is simple. Chemicals make food last longer, and food isn't designed to last long in the body.

A few years ago New England Journal of Medicine stated that minute amounts of pesticides can contribute to tumor growth.

We need much more testing and food label requirements before allowing GMOs into our food stream. Thankfully there are many orgs tracing food sourcing and putting that on food labels. Majority of Europe bans GMO.

Celery juice is absolutely great, but any green juice is fantastic and low alkaline. (Most bodies are highly acidic.) Celery has multiple nutrients, but currently social media is highlighting its ability to cleanse the body and liver. Juicing allows nutrients to bypass the digestive process, which is incredibly taxing on the body, organs, and requires a lot of energy. Consequently, juicing delivers the vitamins and nutrients directly to the bloodstream, where they are readily absorbed.

Today I sit down with the amazing Sarah Van Tassel. Sharah hails from Edmonton, Alberta Canada. She is a marketing and Communications Director. She has a BA in Film Studies from uff A and is passionate about all form of storytelling. We talk Fyre Festival , "The Favorite", "Sorry Not to Bother you", "Kim's Convenience" and much more! Thanks Sarah

This is our 50th episode and my Oscar thoughts for 2019. rom Roma, to Bradley and Gaga to the shocking surprise win for best picture, it is all here. Check it out!

Today I talk with Fiona Williams, Fiona hails from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She is a drama teacher at Archbishop MacDonald high school. She is also a mom to nine month old Abigail. Today we talk about maternity leave, the differences between being a teacher in Canada vs The United States, Heathers, Lin Manual Miranda and much more. Thanks so much Fiona.

Today I sit down with the amazing Rachel Friend from the hit Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. Rachel is a professor, mindset coach and a mom of two little ones. In her work she focuses primarily on discovering the life changing magic of shifting your perspective. We talk about her experience with the KonMari and how it has sparked joy throughout her entire life. I was so happy to connect with Rachel and discover how profound and important her work is and it was an honor to have her on the podcast! Happy folding!

Today I sit down with Michelle Kennedy. Michelle is getting her Master's from the University of Calgary in therapy. She also holds a BA from the University of Alberta. Michelle returns for her second appearance on Barbie Kong as we talk Russian Doll, life, death, therapy and the frigid temps up in Canada these days. It's a good one! give a listen!

Ep. 46 Wise Soul Mesa by Barbie Kong