S5: E3: Jess Ward (Cirque Du Soleil, Atomic Saloon Show, This Is Kayos) & Andrew Diessner (Atomic Saloon, Almost Criminal, Reckless In Vegas) - Atomic Duo in Sin City

Jess Ward & Andrew Diessner

Sat, Aug 05, 2023 10:44PM • 1:16:23

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

work, people, performer, band, andrew, music, talk, move, stage, big, vegas, feel, gymnastics, shows, acrobat, circus arts, acrobatics, called, years, artist, Jess Ward, Andrew Diessner, Cirque Du Soleil, Atomic Saloon Show, Fantasy, Luxor, MGM, MGM Grand, Almost Criminal, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Strip, Magic Mike Live, Wedding Bliss, Sahara, Wreckless In Vegas, This Is Kayos

SPEAKERS

Randy Hulsey, Jess Ward, Andrew Diessner, Adam Gordon

Randy Hulsey  00:00

It's a hot summer afternoon here on the strip in Las Vegas and I have a great bonus episode for you guys today. Hey everyone, it's Randy Hulsey with backstage pass radio and my guest today is a native Australian who now calls sin city home. She is an acrobat and an aerialist and several successful productions right here on the Las Vegas Strip. And I'm gonna jump right into the middle of a convo with Jace Ward when we return.

Adam Gordon  00:24

This is backstage pass radio, the podcast that's designed for the music junkie with a thirst for musical knowledge. Hi, this is Adam Gordon. And I want to thank you all for joining us today. Make sure you like subscribe and turn alerts on for this and all upcoming podcasts. And now here's your host of backstage pass radio, Randy Halsey.

Randy Hulsey  00:53

I am joined by the talented Jess Ward, Jess. Hello, finally.

Jess Ward  00:58

Hello. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's

Randy Hulsey  01:00

nice to meet you. And I was also lucky enough to have another amazing musician in the room with us. Andrew Dessner. Welcome, man. Yeah, welcome. Yeah. It's like I get the double whammy here. So we'll talk and talk to Andrew and Jess and find out what's going on with them. But thanks for finding me here at the MGM. And how far is your place from the hotel where we're at right now?

Jess Ward  01:28

Not today. But on a normal day, it's about 1015 minutes. If you were between Bellagio and Caesars and went directly west, you'd end up at our house. But today this traffic was just a nightmare took us 45 minutes what should be a 15 surprise

Randy Hulsey  01:42

you guys didn't cancel on. As we were walking upstairs, it's like, you know, I was saying you can't go anywhere anymore. Everything's under construction. Everything's growing. I was out in Nashville not too long ago. And that city is nuts. Like you can't move around in that city. There's so much traffic. There's so many people moving there. It's not it really is may want to

Andrew Diessner  02:07

build a ballpark. Right here. It's just Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  02:12

yeah, they're gonna have to expand the infrastructure at some point in time freeways and whatnot to get people to move around. Yeah. So just I want to go back for just a minute, to your upbringing and Australia. Talk to the listeners a little bit about where you grew up in Australia.

Jess Ward  02:29

So I was born in Melbourne. And then my parents moved to Sydney when I was very, very young. So most of my childhood was in Sydney. I started off in music and ballet, and eventually started learning acrobatics, because of my mom, she had grown up in Western Australia. And they do over there. And I think they still do a syllabus of acrobatics in the way that you would do ballet as a syllabus. So it's very structured. And it's kind of like, you know, how if you watch old, like black and white films, and they're doing all that kind of contortion and stuff on stages on hard flow with no apparatus, it's more that kind of style. So when she ended up in Sydney, she was looking at what was on offer there, which if it wasn't gymnastics, there wasn't really a version of kind of stage acrobatics that you could do. So she offered to teach for the school that I was learning dance at the time. And it kind of expanded from there. So she ended up finding her way into what's called I think it's, it's changed names since I was doing it used to be called sports acrobatics. And now, I think it's acrobatic gymnastics, maybe, but it's part of the umbrella of gymnastics. So in like a technique sense, it's more, it's more that direction. So I ended up competing for many years doing that ended up at World Championships. And that was kind of I thought I was gonna I was gonna stop all of it after I finished competing, because I was, I think I was 17 or 18. I applied to be an air hostess, got that job, quit everything for a year went and traveled around. As an 18 year old, it was the best thing ever. Belly in Thailand, July, whatever else. But I had applied for a university that does circus arts, and it's in Melbourne, I got the acceptance letter, and I don't even think I'd been an air hostess for 12 months at this point. And I was reading this letter thinking, do I give this away? Like, that's a pretty coveted job to have anyway. Yeah. But I figured while I was young and still able to do something with my body acrobatically I might as well go and explore that. So that was the start of my second career.

Randy Hulsey  04:38

your line of work is not for old people. No.

Jess Ward  04:43

Even now I'm 35 now and I'm like, Oh, I don't recover the same as

Randy Hulsey  04:48

wait till you get my hate life. You're not there. You're not anywhere near there. Yeah. Well, so were you a did you consider yourself like a daredevil kid? Growing up, were you were you a tomboy kind of girl or talk to me about that?

Jess Ward  05:05

I was like a little fairy. I was like painfully shy. Really just not into like, like I played volleyball and soccer and stuff like that at school. But as far as like regular people sports, if I can call it that, yeah, I wasn't doing any of that. Because I was learning ballet. I was training acrobatics multiple times a week. I remember a specific conversation with my parents that I was doing everything I was learning, acrobatics, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, music, just like trying to fit everything I've ever I've like around school. And my parents said to me, you have to pick something because you're spread so thin, and you're going to be a jack of all and a master of none. So ended up picking Valley and acrobatics to stick with. But yeah, I didn't know I was just really quiet and really shy. And it's funny. I think I still have parts of that. But when I'm on stage, I just feel like I'm a different version of myself. Okay. I said that.

Randy Hulsey  06:05

Usually, I would think somebody in that line of work. When you think of gymnastics and acrobatics, you just think about a bubbly kid that you can't control. Like they're always jumping around and jumping on the bed and doing things crazy things like that

Jess Ward  06:19

home. Yes, definitely. I used to do handstands on the side of the sofa and put my feet on the ceiling and my dad would yell at me for getting footprints. And like anytime I was in a park, we'd like a run of grass and be tumbling and laying around. But yeah, you definitely, definitely active and wanting to like just do what I love to

Randy Hulsey  06:41

Sure. Yeah. Now you're skilled and hand balancing and aerial hoops. Correct. Go ahead. And when I don't have my facts correct, you tell me all right, but am I am I on point there,

Jess Ward  06:54

I started off Pambansang as one of my specialties when I was studying. And then aerial hoop was my secondary at the time. So now I'm doing aerial silk sample and a lot of aerial work at a certain point kind of crosses over. So once you've got the basics in inversions and your body strength, like body strength, it's a lot. I want to say simpler. And I want to use that word because it's not simple. And you try to you try and learn something that feels like it's complementary. And it partially is it partially isn't. But yeah, over the course of when I started my first contracts to now, it's been a case of hey, do you do soaks? Yep, cool. And I've thrown something together and done that. And then next contract was something different. And I was able to use those skills and understanding to do the next thing. So I have a pretty broad understanding of a lot of things at this point. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  07:48

Well, that's good. Diversity is a great thing. You know, you can easily move from one thing to another if you really had to do that. How important is it having a dance and gymnastics background in what you do today?

Jess Ward  08:03

I think from my personal experience, it's been imperative. And it's kind of put me in a position where I can be cast as a dancer. And as an aerialist, or in a show that requires both, I have both of those skills. But seeing that I have worked with many, many acrobats that have come from specifically circus in countries where they get thrown into circus school as kids rather than gymnastics, and I think that's something that's maybe more accessible now, like in Australia places, certainly in the States as well. But for me, at that age, like it was gymnastics and dance and circus wasn't really a thing. But yeah, it's interesting, because you end up working with people who just have a completely different understanding of musicality and dance and movement and, and circus in itself is a very vast thing. So I want to add a sir like,

Randy Hulsey  08:57

yeah, we'll come back to the circus thing, because it's interesting. Andrew, I want to jump over to you real quick. And you mentioned earlier before we hit the record button, that you were, I guess, in the atomic saloon show? Yes. Correct. And now that's Is this where you guys met? Okay. You met in that? Are you still Jess? Are you still active in that show? Yes. Would you like Jess or not a native of Nevada, right. Where are you from? And what brought you to Las Vegas?

Andrew Diessner  09:30

I'm originally from Thornton, Colorado, so Thornton's just a small suburb. Well, it's not small anymore. It's one of the biggest suburbs in Colorado. But yeah, it's just north of Denver, maybe 13 miles. So I grew up there. And eventually after college, I started working on cruise ships. And as a guest entertainer, so yeah, I was kind of traveling the world. I left Denver and coming home to Denver after that just kind of felt like I just didn't belong there anymore. Like there was something like I still needed to keep Finding out where I fit or go to a place where I had more opportunities. And I was actually dating a girl at the time that was living here. And so when I got off ships, and I landed in Denver, I lived there for about seven months downtown. And then I was like, you know, what, why don't I just move out to Vegas? Like, it makes sense. There's more opportunities. There's more to do. She's out there. Let's do it. Like that. Makes sense. Yeah. So that's what initially brought me out here. And then as soon as I got plugged into the city, yeah, it made sense. Like, I saw that the stages I wanted to play on, I saw the shows that interested me. And I pretty much played on all those stages and gotten into the show. So it was definitely a good move. Yeah,

Randy Hulsey  10:41

that's a cool story. And it's not, it's really not the first time I've heard such a story. I had one of my favorite bands of all time as a three piece out of Louisiana. And when I had the drummer guy, Gal, so on my show, I asked him, I said, now you're a native California guy like what? Why Louisiana? What? How did you go from California to Louisiana? Because most people would go from Louisiana to California, Louisiana doesn't seem like it's no, no. And he said, Well, I came to I came to Mardi Gras and met a girl and I never left. That's always the common denominator. There's always a female scenario. Yeah, guys, we just fall for anything.

Andrew Diessner  11:25

She's the biggest reason I stays right. Yeah.

Randy Hulsey  11:29

Exactly. Well jump back to you just you have a few accolades. And one of them, you were named National Acrobat of the year in 2002. Now, I know that was some time back. But where were you residing when you collected those honors?

Jess Ward  11:46

So I was in Sydney at the time. And it was sort of towards the end of my competitive career. So I'd worked with, it's in acrobatic gymnastics you work in. It's changed since I've done it. So I'm not going to be totally up to date with how currently works. But at the time, it was teams of two, three or four. And some was mixed gender, some not. But the team that I was with was two other girls. And we competed our group together for eight years continuously, which is like kind of unheard of a lot of teams like break up and people leave and do other things. So we had done two world championships and had state and national and internationally recognized or what's actually so

Randy Hulsey  12:33

yeah, it was pretty impressive. Well, then, I think two years later, in 2004, you were given the title of international acrobat. So what's the difference and a national Acrobat of the year and then international Acrobat of the year,

Jess Ward  12:47

so I can't, I can't even remember which is which. But a couple of these were awarded from gymnastics New South Wales, and some of them were from gymnastics, Australia. So it's like, obviously a bigger umbrella. But the national one was from our performance within Australia, and the level we're competing and the results we got from that. And then the 2004 would have been after we'd been to World Championships that year. But we had been two years before that. So okay, I didn't know I really like racking my brain for this. Now, I haven't thought about these

Randy Hulsey  13:22

questions would be really easy. It should be easy. Well, I guess these Would you consider these big honors for you?

Jess Ward  13:34

At the time, yes. When I was involved in sport, yes. And it did come to be very important when I self petition for a green card to be in the states and having those accolades, in my case, to prove that you should have me in your country and give me opportunities to work. That was that was a huge thing that I'd been on national teams and being in international competitions and had these awards given so I was extremely grateful for that. Wow.

Randy Hulsey  13:58

Well, we talked a little bit about the circus earlier. And I told you guys that we'd come back to the whole circus thing. But I know that you graduated from the National Institute of circus arts. This is a real thing. Like I'm not up on the whole Acrobat life. Right. And I had no idea literally, that you could go to school. I mean, I mean, I know you could take dance and gymnastics, right? But I didn't realize like, there's a place where you can go to learn circus arts, right. Talk to the listeners a little bit about what is such an institution know about it until I met her? Like, I feel like dumb. Like, I had no idea. What was that? Yeah,

Jess Ward  14:38

it was funny because the only reason I knew about it was because my mom used to get newsletters from the school. And they would send these things over to her saying if you have students that don't want to compete anymore, this is an option for like a career move. So it is a university degree if you do the three years so I have a Bachelor of circus arts and things. And there are other schools that Do it as well. There's one in Montreal, that's very, very good. One in London as well. And I'm sure there's others since then sure. But in the first year, you do six months of kind of general skills that if you were to go to a psych display audition, you get asked if you can show a handstand section and grand acrobatics and acting and a couple of different specialties and work with a group. So you kind of covering all of those bases in the first six months. And it also gives you an opportunity to try a whole range of different specialties. So it was called specialty shopping at the time. So we got to like swing on trapezes and Glen soaks and do handstands and whatnot. It was a strange transition for me, because I'd gone from gymnastics and ballet, which is so strict on there is one way that is considered to be correct to do this trick, or to do this, whatever it is. So going into something where there's so much freedom and to sit in a hoop and have someone say just play around. Like, I don't know how, like, tell me what to do tell me the rules give me some boundaries, because I just didn't know how to let go and just be artistic and free and what I was reading so

Randy Hulsey  16:10

because you were used to structure.

Jess Ward  16:13

Yeah, and I mean, obviously, there's still an element of structure in the technicalities of what you're doing. But it's just a completely different angle to like transition from athlete to artist. So that was really hard for me to let go of, and I think to having gone from being high level in terms of competition and my results from that. I was thinking, this is going to be a cakewalk, this is going to be so easy for me to just step into this really good circus artist, but I felt like everything I tried was either excruciatingly painful, was really difficult, or it's just really bad at it.

Randy Hulsey  16:49

But when you say excruciating, painful what? From a physical perspective of

Jess Ward  16:54

burning bruising, just like having metal buzz grind into your body in areas that you don't want them to be in. And I was just thinking, I'm never going to be able to put up with this. I'm never going to be at a level that's, that's good. That's considered to be good. So it took a really long time. And I think even really beyond the costs. And that was another thing that I was thinking, you know, at the end of my three years, I'm going to be really good. I'm going to be ready to work. And it took me another two years before I was I was gigging I was doing corporates and different events until I actually booked a contract was another two years that I was just like grinding, working training and doing as much as I could to kind of solidify like, Okay, I have an actor that looks like, I know what I'm doing. And I'm comfortable doing it. And yeah, it was quite a transition for me to do that. But I made it through the cost. And I have my bachelor's. So that's how I

Randy Hulsey  17:45

was gonna say I didn't even want to go to college to begin with, let alone go to college and be abused. Who wants to do that? You say it's a university. So when you go there like a normal university, you can go you can major in geology, you can major in science, whatever. At the circus arts university, do you pick a specialty that you want to major in? Or major? Like we would know it and university?

Jess Ward  18:16

Yeah, absolutely. So you pick two specialties. One is your major. And then one is just on the side. So it's kind of it was suggested at the time that you do something on the ground and something in the air, which was like the best advice that I could have got at the time, because there's a lot of venues that you discover later on, don't have rigging, or wants something different than what your heart really wants them to want. Yeah. So there was other things that you had to do like business costs, history costs, and it was all relative to success in the industry. But your major, whatever you chose that to be was a piece that you presented at the end of the three years.

Randy Hulsey  18:53

Okay, interesting. I had no idea like, I'm totally getting educated here on my show, which is, which is cool. Well, I don't I don't know about in Australia. But there was always a joke in the US, like, you know, you say, Well, I'm gonna run off and join the circus, right? Well, you literally ran off and joined the circus. The first person I ever known that that has lived up to that that moniker or whatever you want to call it so interesting. What do you think you would be doing? Now, if you weren't performing? Have you ever thought much about that? Like if you get old, right, what's just Ward gonna do for work? Right?

Jess Ward  19:37

It's funny that you asked me that now, because that's been like the hot topic of the last probably six months for me. I lived in Vegas before I moved to the first time nine years ago, and stayed for a year and a half left and came back and everything that happened between leaving and coming back was pretty. It was so far actually so far beyond what I ever could have expected. My career was going it'd be so coming back to Vegas this time. Again, like, I just had these misaligned expectations of like, this is gonna be so easy for me and it's not. So coming back. The city had changed a lot, I changed a lot. And my expectations have changed a lot. So it's really made me sit in a, in a place that has made me look at myself and have an introspective moment of who am I if I'm not a performer, because it's just it's been me and my life and my identity for so long. So my expectation coming back was to work full time in a show again, do 10 Shows a week, week in week out. And I haven't been doing that I've been gigging I've been swinging shows, I've been doing bits and pieces that has been really nice in terms of having a break from that schedule, because it's been so long, and also kind of opening me up to just different people with different opportunities. But yeah, again, like it's kind of left me in this position of like, wow, like, who am I and find out. And so I've actually started studying a fashion business course, I'm really interested in designing and sustainable fashion and kind of moving in that direction. It's been something that I've been playing with and had a small business in for a few years now. But I think now is the time that I'm really interested in taking that and running with it.

Randy Hulsey  21:15

Well, there's, it seems like there's two pieces to our world that we live in as performers, right? Yours is more physical than mine, of course, and but there's the age aspect where, at some point in time, the body just doesn't want to do what the body should anymore, we get old things where we don't we're not as limber. But the other part of that is walking out of the limelight, and going to a nine to five or something behind the scenes. That can be stressful for a lot of people. If you're used to be an all eyes on you, you know, Andrew Bana, music entertainer, me being a musician, you being a performer, and then we don't have that Limelight anymore. That can be hard for some people. So it's the physical piece, it's hard to give up and move on to something else. But just leaving that whole Limelight thing can be pretty tough to write.

Jess Ward  22:11

I think that's been the hardest thing to try and navigate my way through. Because I do I love what I do. And and I'm trying to even really dissect it and look at what what do I love about this. Like I love being creative. And it's not the kind of I don't in a regular social situation. I don't like to be the center of attention. Okay, I like it when I'm on stage. I'm sure in that setting. It's familiar. But outside of that. I'm very happy just being a wallflower and not being noticed. So maybe maybe that will serve me well. I don't know. Yeah. I think as long as I'm doing something that's creative, and then I'm passionate about and that's kind of the most important thing for me to still have involved in my life. Being on stage. But yeah, the age thing is like, it's crazy, because I feel like I blinked and suddenly I'm 35. And thinking about this really seriously, and doesn't feel like that long ago that I was the youngest person in the cast. And now I'm on stage with girls that are like 1920 thinking, Oh, my God, do I look like their mother? Like,

Randy Hulsey  23:13

I get it, trust me. And you know, it's funny you say that? Because even at the company that I work with, I don't feel old at all, you know, I'm still a performer, I still, you know, but then when I look at people around me and like, Okay, you're 22 and you're 30 you're like, geez, I feel like a relic, you know? And it's, it's sometimes it's hard. You know, like, I feel like I'm as young as you guys are. But technically, I'm not. So yeah, it's tough to you have to get through that in your mind sometime, for sure. Well, have you ever thought about maybe entertaining, teaching or coaching?

Jess Ward  23:51

I think in terms of if I could be an artistic director or a coach within a professional setting? Absolutely. I have done some teaching with just like, kind of casual classes that people sign up and do Arial and whatnot. And I don't know why I'm pre programmed to think, Oh, I hate doing that. But when I'm actually doing that I quite enjoy. Love seeing the progress of people that I'm teaching that come in and say, Oh, I can't do this, or I'm not strong enough to do that. And suddenly they're doing it.

Randy Hulsey  24:19

It's great. It's gratifying to do that. And I'm sure But absolutely.

Jess Ward  24:23

But I didn't know I didn't know how it would feel to not be on stage and to be involved with the industry still, like maybe I would be okay, if that was a slow transition, but I don't know.

Randy Hulsey  24:35

It's like anything. I think there's an adjustment period and once you get through that adjustment period, it becomes old hat to you. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Well, you guys had you had mentioned Andrew, you had mentioned earlier about working on the cruise lines, and I think you are a part of a cruise line at some point in time. Andrew, share with me your background. Get on the cruise what cruise line? And how did you get involved in that type of work?

Andrew Diessner  25:05

So I, when I graduated from Colorado State in 2011, I started doing a lot of musical theater in town. Because I wanted to just get out and start performing. I have a bachelor's in vocal performance from Colorado State. So that was, I wanted to start working right away. I didn't want to I didn't want to teach, which a lot of people kind of majored in education because they wanted that to kind of be something to fall back on. They want they wanted a cushion. And I was like, You know what, I don't want any other options. I want to do this. And so moved into Denver out of Fort Collins and I started working in musical theater and I had a friend one summer that was like, Hey, I just auditioned for this cruise line, you would be great for it, because you have a classical background because I studied opera in school. And sure enough, I auditioned for this company was Holland America Line. And it was for a company called stiletto entertainment. They were the ones that were running all the entertainment at the time on Holland America Line. So I auditioned for them, and I booked the job and it was a 10 month contract it see. And I was there a male legit performer, which meant I was their classical singer, their male classical singer, they had a male Broadway singer and a male classical singer, and then a female Broadway singer and a female classical singer. So I booked that job, I worked it for that 10 months and honestly, a couple months. And I was like, I don't ever want to do this again. Really, I did it for eight years. So yeah, well, why

Randy Hulsey  26:32

do you think you felt like that in the beginning?

Andrew Diessner  26:35

I think in the beginning, I just I was holding on to so much in Denver. And I think that it was just really hard for me to let myself become who I wanted to, instead of maybe becoming who other people expected me to be sure. And so it really allowed me to become like coming to myself. And so I did two years with Holland America Line, but then I wrote my own two shows. So I have 245 minutes shows that are solo shows. And I pitched I filmed a reel of the shows and I send an agents and the first agent that got it booked me and signed me to their agency to be a guest entertainer. So as a guest entertainer, I can create my own schedule, and I could fly out to a ship for a week, do my show one night in the main show room and then go home. And it was so much better, much better money, like everything was better about as a guest onboard instead of really a crew member. Like I still had crew privileges. But I was treated as a guest, which was great. But then when the pandemic hit I, I was kind of planning on getting out of that, because I was just gone all the time. And I was getting a little depressed because I was traveling and performing by myself all the time. And I used the seven piece band on the ship. But I was traveling alone all the time. I was on new ships all the time. And yeah, and I was most mostly on Princess cruise lines, because during those few years, but which they were lovely, but it was just I wanted to like start a life on land. And like focus on my music because I'm a writer as well. Okay. And I just continued to take jobs that I knew could cover me financially, but I was still doing music. So I kind of put all my music on the backburner for years and years and years because of that. I was chasing whatever could pay my bills. Yeah, yeah.

Randy Hulsey  28:18

I mean to an end, right. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting that you said that I have, I wouldn't call him a friend. But I have met him. We're friends on social media, but a guy named Travis clover. I don't know if that name is familiar, but he's a Las Vegas guy. And I think he was just in a production of the musician meatloaf. So yeah, he's he was doing that show here. Yeah. And I met him when my family was on Royal Caribbean and I got to talk into him on the ship and he basically what you said would fly in do the shows in the in the big theater and then he was gone. He wasn't like the guy that went and you know, stay stayed stayed on the ship for for six months or whatever. And that's really cool. And then I started thinking about it as a performer. That would be pretty cool when I retired to like, you know, be a solo guitarist or maybe even do something duo wise. And then I started reading up on that like you and maybe all cruise lines are different but like you had to go to Fort Lauderdale or something and audition and maybe you can send tapes now I really don't know how that works. But when you said that it made me think of Travis that he kind of sure he's done that for a long time as well. And how about you just you were on the cruise lines as well

Jess Ward  29:45

for like a blip. It's really funny how this came about because I had a friend of mine who was meant to take this contract and he failed his medical his ship medical book that he went on. So I had the agent call me and say, we have this last minute panic, would you like to go on this ship. And it was a guest entertainer in a way but not in the capacity that Andrew was doing. And so I had to basically come up with two different acts both ground x, which was fine, because I was doing a lot of that work at the time. And it was only for five weeks on this tiny, tiny little ship that's probably either at the bottom of the ocean, or it's been retired by now. It was not the most glamorous thing. But I did not enjoy it, I was sharing this tiny, tiny room and with a guy that I didn't know and

Randy Hulsey  30:39

I think I really like would like do that like they would. Because we're

Jess Ward  30:43

both guest entertainers and they just practice into this tiny little bunk bed room. And, and the See, this is very obvious now. But at the time, when I went it told me and I hadn't considered that if you sail out of Sydney, US sailing into open water, and it's very rough, coming back in, it's great. But I was planning to do this hand balancing act on the way out. And this thing was just rocking. And it was an absolute nightmare. So ended up flipping the order of the acts. But I was teaching service classes, I was doing all these other different things that I didn't realize I was going to be doing. So I didn't have an experience anything

Randy Hulsey  31:20

like what was kind of short lived.

Jess Ward  31:23

And I think it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth that I know is not accurate, because I know a lot of people that have done many, many contracts for many years and and I've really enjoyed them. So sure that was not my experience. But

Randy Hulsey  31:34

there has been people that have done, you know, worked as a hotel person that some love it and some hate it right? It's not, it's not for everybody, or maybe their experience wasn't good. It's not that you're talking bad about the cruise lines. It's just like, it's there's something for everyone I think is my point. And you know, what works for me doesn't work for you. That's perfectly fine. But it's not a reflection that, you know, life is an entertainer on the cruise ships is a bad thing, because it's not because a lot of people do that they do for a living here. Absolutely they do. We'll walk the listeners through a day in the life of a person like yourself that is a circus performer like what time? Is there a time that you wake up in the morning? Are you an early riser? Are you not an early riser?

Jess Ward  32:22

Currently? No.

Randy Hulsey  32:24

Not an early bird.

Jess Ward  32:26

Okay, if anyone needs to call me like from a bank or insurance and it's before midday, I just kind of have my brain. It's not it's not very practical.

Randy Hulsey  32:34

I can see what the blinders on or the shades or whatever. And I'm a vampire. blackout shade. Yeah, right.

Jess Ward  32:43

Well, I guess my life currently in Vegas is very different to other iterations of being a performer in different capacities, like when I was touring with sec, for example. But as far as here, I have to set days that I work at a show at Luxor, and the show starts at 10:30pm. So if I wake up early, by the time it gets to 1030, I am ready to bed and I don't want to be on stage expending energy doing. Sure. So yeah, my day is kind of shifted a little later. But I Yeah, again, like it's kind of weird now. Because I used to like, I would go and train at a circus base, do some aerial stuff, create different things. And I still need to do that. Like if I'm doing an audition or have some an event or something coming up. And that's kind of how I spend my hours of my day. But now I'm studying working on my business stuff. And then taking hours to wash my hair and spray tan getting ready for work.

Randy Hulsey  33:42

All the important

Jess Ward  33:45

things. And I also do a lot of corporate events and modeling work and promotional work. And it's just such a mixed bag of what I'm doing. Yeah. It's funny when you reached out to me in April and said, What's your schedule? I was like, I know what I'm doing on Thursday. Like, I have no

Randy Hulsey  34:01

idea and I'm so sorry about that like I am so in here's why I'm gonna apologize to you. I'm the most OCD structured guy in the world, like I have to know, far in advance what I'm doing. I'm sorry, that's the way my brain works. And when people don't know, or something along those lines, it just it doesn't upset me. It just wears this like how do you not know but but what I don't I don't put myself in your position like you live in a different world I live in and I understand that. Yeah, but I'm very methodical about my moves. And I'm very punctual. So I was stressing today with you guys. Because I don't like to be late for anything. And I was my heart rate. I text my wife and I said, Dude, my watch says 121 my heart rates at 121 Like I'm like, I was so mad at that whole debacle at the other hotel and all I could think about is where am I even gonna get it? RAM isn't even going to be able to accommodate you guys, I didn't want to cancel, because we've been talking back and forth for what seems like a year now. Right? And I'm like, the last thing I want to do is cancel. But yeah, so we just live in different worlds. Yeah, for sure.

Jess Ward  35:14

I think I used to be very, very similar to, because like, especially being on tour, like I was on this arena to a whistle just lay for just over three years. And we had a varying schedule in terms of like days of the week, which we would start shows on. But if you were checking out of a hotel and getting on a flight, or there was a chartered flight, or a bus leaving, like, I had an idea of how my next three, four months, we're going to look that far in advance that every step was sure doubt. And now I don't have that I've really had to just surrender and just kind of let it go and be open to saying yes to something the day of potentially. So it would be

Randy Hulsey  35:50

tough for me, we talked about acquiescing to, you know, just I don't know, that would just blow my mind. But I think that if you had to do it, you get used to it and it becomes customary, and you you know, becomes the norm after a while. How about you, Andrew? Are you a early guy? Are you blinders on to until noon kind of guy? Competitive, lazy bunch of people detecting this?

Andrew Diessner  36:17

Yeah, we, both of us, and neither of us really start work until around 10pm. You know, I might load into a venue at eight or nine. But then I'm playing until one in the morning or two in the morning. Yeah. And so, you know, when a normal I say normal, but like when somebody who's working nine to five gets off work, you know, they may not go to bed until 10. Sure, well, that's a five hour gap that they are filling with going home, seeing their family making dinner, all that so at two o'clock when I get off work and you're still winding down. I'm still winding down. So it may take me until 5am sure to like fall asleep.

Randy Hulsey  36:51

Yeah, cuz your loadout is probably an hour to just get out of a venue.

Andrew Diessner  36:55

We I got it down to a tee. Yeah, throw my stuff in and actually add this where we are at MGM. It's funny because this is the longest Loden like, any other no good. It's from the garage, all the way to the base of my Las Vegas Boulevard. So it's I'm just carting my bass amp or my guitars or whatever, whenever I'm playing that night. I'm just like loading this thing all the way through the casino. And so yeah, it does take a while sometimes,

Randy Hulsey  37:21

and we talked about that earlier. There's not a damn thing close to anything in Vegas. Like, you look out the window. Like we're looking out the window right now you're like, Oh, look at the hotel just right there. Yeah, and you go walk there and it takes you like an hour and a half has to walk to that hotel. It's so deceiving. Yeah. So you got you're in great shape. I've seen pictures. Of course you are to like, talk to me a little bit about diet, like, how regimented Are you on on diet and what what you guys eat, like as performers, right?

Jess Ward  37:56

Andrew far more than I am.

Andrew Diessner  37:58

She gets away with a lot more than I did. Because she's, you know, pulling herself up silks and spinning around and doing a lot more work than I am. You know, being on stage for four hours is still a lot like, you know, even just standing there and rocking out you burn calories. But I've always been a gym goer, it's always been something that, like I grew up as a fat kid. So I was told a lot you would ever know, right? Yeah, when I got into, you know, my senior year in high school and going into college. And as I started to get into shape, I was like, I never want to go through that. Again, I want to be bullied and teased and like, you know, so I've always kind of maintain a certain regimen that works for me. And so the gym is a big part of my life. Since I'm not doing that for a living like justice. But yeah, it's very, it's very simple. For me, my mornings are kind of always the same. You know, I'll have like a cup of egg whites with one whole egg, some oatmeal and some avocado or almond butter. So I make sure to just hit my macros every day and save a little bit for some beers on stage. And ruin

Randy Hulsey  39:07

your Nutty Professor OCD about that stuff, but this is my like, one and a half beers.

Andrew Diessner  39:17

Yeah, so it's just it's just something I've worked in in my lifestyle and I always make both those things a priority because only that's the only way you can get to where you want to be is if you're consistent and you make those things a big part of your life. Yeah,

Jess Ward  39:32

yeah, I don't think anywhere near

Randy Hulsey  39:34

that extent, like Well, do you just have a great metabolism? Like I mean, like Andrew said, you know, you had weight issues growing up. Were you ever heavy person are you always were a thin person so you didn't have to really fight a weight thing, right? Not

Jess Ward  39:51

really and like both of my parents naturally, a pretty sure of a noun like yeah, they're quite slender build. So I guess I'm lucky in that way, like proportionate if I gain weight, it's kind of evenly spread. It's not like one area, which I'm grateful for. Yeah, but I didn't know like, I think we worked out recently that we kind of accidentally intimately first, just because we wake up late and we start eating late and the way that I was working our work schedule, so I think that's in my favor. But I am very lucky that I have something that makes me be active while I'm at work, because I never work out. I love cheese. I love chocolate like I love. I'm just I don't hold back. Within reason. Like she says

Andrew Diessner  40:34

she says that, but she never overeats like I never seen it. She knows she stops item. I'll keep going. Really Yeah,

Jess Ward  40:40

but it's also like, because like, if I go to work, I can't have eaten a big meal or something that makes me feel heavy makes me feel great, because I'm upside down and I don't want to throw up on the stage. The last thing

Randy Hulsey  40:53

I'm not coming back, it was funny that you said something about oatmeal, because for the years that I was playing hockey for 13 years, that was my pregame meal before every game, it was like it was enough food to fill me up. But yet, it didn't weigh heavy. And I felt like I could still move in the skates or your body didn't feel like you know, yeah, fat thing, skating around, or whatever. Well, I, we talked about the egg whites and all of this stuff as I was writing kind of made myself laugh the other day, which I do sometimes. But I was writing this outline. And I was sitting there drinking like a coke and eaten chocolate covered almonds. And I'm like, Okay, I'm fixing to go meet two people that have like, the bodies of Gods here and like I'm sitting here, adults feel guilty. I'm like, Okay, well, nevermind. I'm not I don't feel guilty. Now, now.

Andrew Diessner  41:57

I've never been a soda drinker, but craft beer. I just weakened. That's my weakness. And I'm

Randy Hulsey  42:02

telling you, they have a ton of those in Cypress, Texas right outside of Houston, where I'm in. I'm a resident artist at at some of the bigger ones. And I'm telling you, if you wanted to, if you were an alcoholic, this would be the best place to go. Because you go to any of these and they're like, can we get your beer? Can we get your beer? And I mean, you know, yeah, they just feed the beers to you. So you can either become an alcoholic or just a big ol fat slob. Yeah, you know, and so you got to watch that definitely, definitely. But yeah, there's some great craft beer places in the Cypress area. Share with me your safety precautions. So I've been to like eight, eight Cirque du Soleil shows. And while you can see some of the safety precautions, it almost there's an appearance that some of them there's there's nothing in place. So as an aerialist, those are the ones that spooked me the most because you're so high off of a stage. But yet, it doesn't look like there's any harnesses. And maybe maybe there are and I don't, and I'm just not educated to look for that. But speak to the listeners a little bit about in your capacity, what safety precautions are in place for you, and in a show like Cirque du Soleil.

Jess Ward  43:21

So the act that I'm currently performing most often is aerial silk. So it's like the two pieces of fabric that hang from the ceiling. So with that particular apparatus, you just can't have the safety because of the way that you're wrapping the fabric around yourself. And it's having to unwrap, and there's kind of a rule that was built into definitely intersect display. And I don't know if other companies have adopted it as well. But with with an apparatus that from the top point of where it's connected to the rigging, that goes down and touches the ground. So like soaks or rope that hangs vertically, you don't use the safety, you just can't use the safety. The only exception that I've experienced with that is if you're loading in from a grid above the stage, so there was a show I did in Dubai, where we did literally this and then I was tied into it a handle loop that was connected to the top of the rigging, while I waited in to what they thought was an acceptable height and then I could come out of this hamlet. But swinging trapeze always uses a safety line. Aerial hoop does not. And this is another thing with I believe, I think dragon and Cirque alike have this rule that if you're above, if your center of gravity is above a certain height, you have to be tied into the apparatus somehow. So if you're flying above an audience or doing something like that, again, is this kind of it looks like kind of a T shaped teardrop shaped bloop with a little band that comes down and sits on your wrist. So there are certain structures that you can put into an act to incorporate stuff like that if you need to, but you Yeah, Aereo heaps of it's an interesting one, because there's so many different styles of it. And the way that I do it is quite fast spinning, there's a lot of transitions quick hand movement. So when you're training at a height that is me just at a gym and rigging it and jumping on and doing it can be exponentially different to what you're doing in a show. Sure, it definitely takes a little bit of an adjustment period to feel like, okay, I'm at this many meters above this stage, and I feel confident in what I'm doing. So if you reduce the speed of your span, or whatever, until you're comfortable and, and familiar in the space as well, that often helps.

Randy Hulsey  45:35

Yeah. I mean, it just it again, it just weirded me out to see people that high above a floor right now, it's one thing to be like in Oh, where you fall from a height like that you're going in water, you know, it's probably not going to be too devastating. But to fall onto a stage or something like that. Yeah. And then leave a mark. Yeah, for sure.

Jess Ward  45:58

It's really scary seeing when incidents do happen. And that's, you know, it's horrible to talk about, but it's just the reality of what we do. And that was a couple that happened not too long ago, within a week of each other that it's, it's just, it's scary, because I think it kind of ties into rights and what people are willing to pay for be rare be at certain events in? I guess not, not so much with shows, but certainly with events, like if you offer someone 100 bucks to go and do an aerial act, if someone offered me that, I would say absolutely not. Yeah. But the people that are accepting very low rates maybe aren't so experienced, and they're they're risking falling and they don't have safeties in that furnace that they're working in. So yeah, there's definitely a risk factor involved in it. But I don't know, I guess that's part of the risks you take.

Randy Hulsey  46:50

Well, yeah, to me, there's risk and everything. But there's also a degree of stupidity sometimes to where you're like, wow, okay, that that seems a little far out to me. You know what I mean? Like? Well, that's interesting. Are you as a performer? Or at that level of performance? Are you in awe of some of the abilities of some of the circus performers, because I sit and, you know, I think a lot of people would share my sentiment, the casual civilian that's watching the shows, were an all of that type, or that kind of ability, like the strength and some of the things that these people are doing. Yeah, Cirque du Soleil, I'm using circus Aliy. Of course, there's others out there besides Cirque, but are even you as a performer? Do you look at your peers and say, Oh, my gosh, that's amazing what they're doing.

Jess Ward  47:44

I think it's like a blessing and a curse to dissect something so much to learn it and implement it yourself that that is, when I go to see a show. I probably look very unimpressed because my face is like doing nothing. But it's not because I'm not enjoying what I'm looking at or what people are doing. I'm just sitting there and dissecting like, this is this trick. This is his transition. This is how this is working. And looking at it from a very technical perspective. By saying that, there's, I think, what impresses me and what what I would give that kind of reaction that you describe, too, is more the style of how people are doing what they're doing. So like, there's only so many tricks or so many variations of tricks that you can do. But yeah, it's the it's the way the artistry pulls into that and the performance of it. That is more what impresses me, I would say Yeah, but you know, of course, there's, there's some absolute freaks out there that you watch. And you're like, oh my god, like that is just like next level insane. Like, yeah, for sure. But like on a general general plane, that's, that's probably well, I

Randy Hulsey  48:51

find it all pretty phenomenal because I can't do any of it myself. Andrew, I wanted to talk about the music side, go back to the music side of the business for you. Remind the listeners where you're performing again, from the music perspective.

Andrew Diessner  49:05

Yeah, from the music perspective. I have a band. It's a local cover band. We play all rock music, mix, the band that I've run, it's the one that I started. It's called almost criminal. And we play. We have residency at level up here at MGM. And we played every Wednesday, nine to one, I do some solo guitar work as well in different venues. And I loop a lot when I do that. Okay, I do a lot of looping. I used to play on Fremont Street all the time with my old band. We we pretty much played most every lounge in the city. But my current band is only at one place at the moment. And then I also sing in Magic Mike live as a swing. So I have a lot going on. I have a country band that I plan. Sometimes we do country duo stuff. Okay. So it's similar to what Jessica was talking about with having to, you know, take random corporates do promos do all this stuff. And we're constantly just doing whatever we can. And whatever clients are willing to pay and for. So yeah, it's, it's a lot it, you have to have your hand and multiple pots if you're not in a full time show, right in order to make it, you know, just doing that, like, I don't do anything but music, so you gotta be hustling. And it gets exhausting. Like, I'm 37 I'm not a young buck anymore, you know, I old

Randy Hulsey  50:28

ready for a wheelchair?

Andrew Diessner  50:30

Bring me when I started to question how much I want it anymore. You notice? How hard do I want to work just to make ends meet? And you know, when? And how long am I going to do that for and that's why I really believe that if you I was talking about earlier that I was chasing jobs that could pay my bills and music. But I really think that if you focus on your talent and what that can provide, and if you have something you want to do with that, you need to trust that that's going to replace all that essentially. Yeah, you know, if you keep keep working at it and chipping away the stone. So that's kind of a new direction. I'm moving in. I've just randomly manifested all of these new forms of work that I have going on right now, which is great. But I think that always evolving as a musician is

Randy Hulsey  51:18

is key. Yeah, you have to write you have to stay relevant. Yeah.

Andrew Diessner  51:21

For some bands. I play bass in some bands. I play guitar in some bands. I just sing in some you know. So it's

Randy Hulsey  51:27

so your true multi instrumentalist, you played the bass, you play the guitar? Is there a main instrument for you? Are you are you mainly a bass player? Do you consider yourself more of a bass player than you do a guitarist? Or is it the other way around?

Andrew Diessner  51:41

As far as instrumentally? Yes, I would say that was the one that I focused on studying for the longest time, I was actually a bass major in college before I switched to voice. However, voice is kind of singing as is my key instrument, for sure. But I was I spent a lot of time studying bass and played, you know, everything from jazz, I played a lot of jazz in college. And, and now, you know, Jessica was talking about how focused studying was back then in school. And it was the same thing for me studying opera, and being an orchestra, all those things are so structured, and there's one way to play them. And that's how they want you to sing this opera, this aria, or whatever it is. So you're used to just being like, okay, Teacher, how do you want me to do it? Sure. And then you get into real world and you're like, I have how many options like I can do it however I want, and people are going to accept me for doing this instead of hoping to hear somebody else's voice in your body. So really accepting yourself as an artist, once you get out of school is is important. Yeah. And not really caring what people think. For sure. Yeah. But you have

Randy Hulsey  52:51

to stay true to yourself as a performer, my wife will always say, What do you think you're gonna play tonight? She's like, make it up beat. And I'm like, you can't you as a non artist, you can't. You can't tell me to play something that I'm not failing that night. You know, because sometimes I'm a real melancholy downer kind I do like, like, that's good. Dark singer. Yeah. It's like my favorite. Right? The dark, you know, the deep meaning stuff. Yes. Like I, I like gravitate to that kind of music. I'm not the happy. I mean, I'm not a not happy guy. Right. But that's my music. That's a melancholy thing. And she thinks that it's Friday night and you have to play like Bruno Mars or something that people want to get up and, and like, Okay, well, if I feel that, then I will. But I'm not gonna go out of my way to do that. It's like you don't give an artist a piece of canvas and say, only use blue like you. They have to, in their mind have to draw it the way their mind tells them to draw. I'm really,

Andrew Diessner  53:56

I'm really glad you brought that up. Because there's so many lounges and venues that I play in my agents are like, alright, they don't need stuff, only play that stuff. And I'm like, You know what, if they're booking me, they're gonna get what I do and that and then they don't that we'll go somewhere else. Exactly. And if they don't want me to come back for that anything, that's fine. I just don't want to be a cookie cutter.

Randy Hulsey  54:18

I agree. 100% Yeah, you can't go put your heart into something that you don't feel as a musician or an artist or or even a performer definitely. At all. What's what's the base of choice for you? Are you a Fender guy?

Andrew Diessner  54:32

I am Jazz Bass. I have a Gosh, when did that get that? 2021 one of the ultra jazz basses with the noiseless pickups. It's great. Yeah, I love it plays like Bauhaus players and boxers. Yeah, I was huge. Getting leaf

Randy Hulsey  54:49

Yeti, Yeti and Paul McCartney. Yeah,

Andrew Diessner  54:53

yeah. So those are my my go twos.

Randy Hulsey  54:56

Who influenced you musically as a kid? And then bring that same question forward to your old age of 35. Right? Like, who influences you today? Who didn't like to listen to today? Right? Yeah, but what set it all for you back in the day when I

Andrew Diessner  55:13

was a kid I I got into the 90s punk like pop punk sing and also just like alternative rock so Incubus was one of my favorite bands. And Brandon boy just had this voice that could do every shirt and I fell in love with that. And that's what really kind of molded me into the musician that I am and kind of molded my ear, you know, because they have they're very progressive for like an alternative rock band, right? And so I just every single album, every single song I just was never bored. And that was probably the band that like changed my direction as a musician. I also listened to a lot of Yes, Bresson progressive at Kansas rush old stuff all the progressive rock Led Zeppelin, you know, Guns and Roses. i My dad was huge into prog rock. Okay, so that was just there all the time. And I'm really glad it was because it just, it took my ear out of the typical four chord pop. Sure, you know what I mean? Yeah. And, you know, starting on stringed instrument. I started on violin when I was young, so I always kind of had an ear for, you know, movement and progression instead of, you know, a lot of repetitive stuff. Sure. But that was the big one. When I was kid. Incubus was definitely like my go to these days. The biggest singer that really I'm, I'm huge into singers like everybody. There's some people that know like, every guitar players name for all the bands that exist and I'm, I'm always focused. My ear always goes to a good singer. If the band doesn't have a great singer, I'm not gonna listen to them. Yeah, it's just the way I've always been. And I don't know if you're familiar with Marc Broussard. Joey's Yeah, from Louisiana, calls his stuff by Usul. I love it. His voice is incredible. And just he sings with so much heart and so much like it gives me goosebumps just like because I can hear it and see it in him. And he lives for it. Yeah. And so he was probably my biggest influence. Moving into my 30s Yeah. And, gosh, nowadays, we listen to a lot of bands like, you know, Jack White. He's just so out there. But also just like, I just love his stuff. There's a newer band called royal blood that's doing a lot of stuff that I love. Seems like I've heard of them. Yeah, they're great. It's really weird. They're kind of like a duo.

Randy Hulsey  57:36

They spell it BL Ud? No. D Okay. So there's another one that I saw. Okay, that's something blood, but they spell it bail UD and they might be like a Swedish band or something. Yeah.

Andrew Diessner  57:49

Yeah. So they're really interesting. That's basically a two piece and the singer is a bass player, but he kind of like routes. He channels his bass out into two channels. And one goes into a guitar amp, I think and one goes into a bass amp. And so it gets kind of both inter sounds and both lights. It's so awesome. And so he's he's been very influential moving into like my songwriting currently. Yeah. And yeah, there's, we could talk about bands for another three hours. Yeah, we

Randy Hulsey  58:19

will. Yeah, well, we'll keep it going. But no, I agree. But like Geddy Lee, I mean, how do you not love you know, that trio from Toronto, right. And getting, you know, GED was one of these guys. That was, I mean, taking the bass playing to another level and playing, you know, bass pedals and like, he had the keys and had all kinds of things going on, and his

Andrew Diessner  58:44

rhythm plays while singing. Sure. Contrasting rhythms. It's just like cheese. Yeah, learn one of his songs after six weeks, you know, just to be able to sing and play them for sure.

Randy Hulsey  58:55

For sure, what appeals to you music wise, just since my podcast is kind of music, I try to tie it all back to music but what do you listen to jazz?

Jess Ward  59:06

So this is it's been something that we Andrew and I have really bonded over. It's kind of I guess how we connect it to begin with. I love again like real blood Jack, why nothing about the US rock kind of stuff. But I guess growing up doing belly like I was doing training to like classical music and through all of my performance stuff. It's such an eclectic kind of expansive, what happens and what you have to be expressive to onstage so I think I have an appreciation for a pretty broad range of music and artists. I love everything from like deep house classical rock everything in between. So yeah, it's really nice to be able to go to Andrew shows and like genuinely enjoy the music and not be like, Oh, this is loud or this is whatever like I love all the stuff that he plays in. We can go to it. So you know in Vegas It's so fortunate to have so many things going on. Great artists coming through. We saw the black keys. Absolutely brilliant. Nice. With Jack way as well. Yeah. So it's, yeah, I love that we have that in common. Sure.

Randy Hulsey  1:00:15

Yeah, sure. We're musical mutt calls much like just everything and anything, right? I'm a big Motown guide, love, like wind and fire and, you know, stuff from the Motown era. And then, you know, I was a classically trained pianist. And then I got to that age where as a young teenager, I'm like, This is not cool. I'm never going to pick up girls playing Mozart, Chopin, Chopin, you know, like that. Like, I've got to learn something different. And this teacher, she was definitely a classical teacher, but I jumped ship and went over to a pop teacher, and was learning things like sticks paradise, the stuff like that, you know, just like total, like a whole one ad kind of thing. But that's when, you know, the mind starts thinking, Well, you can't take a piano to a party and impress the girl. So I've got to learn how to play the guitar, right? So I jumped over and started learning to play the guitar. But yeah, every genre like there's nothing off limits. If you look at a playlist of mine, it's just like, dude, is it you're not in one lane, you're all over the map like you have to be. And

Andrew Diessner  1:01:22

it's crazy how in life and I used to talk about this in my cruise ship shows, it's crazy how you go through these phases in your life where you're listening to one type of thing for a really long time, or, you know, one artists or one style. Like in college, I really wouldn't listen to much outside of opera shows that was my life or any classical music, except for when I was in the gym. And then it was like metal, but metal is like pretty close to classical music when the way it's written so but then there may be an artist that you really stuck on for like months at a time. I remember, you know, late in high school in early college, like Justin Timberlake would put out his albums. And every time I would wear that thing out in my car, just so well done. So I written down great talent and same with nothing but thieves. And it's Jess was saying he's the singer Connor for that band has one of the best voices in rock music right now my opinion. And he's just such a yeah, just, it's great. The internet can just flood your ears with so much stuff.

Randy Hulsey  1:02:23

And so much stuff out. You know, I'm a YouTube junkie like that. And it inspires me seeing some of the talent out there. It inspires me, but it also pisses me off time. Like, I'm like, I suck.

Andrew Diessner  1:02:36

Yes. Very easy to compare yourself to yourself. But you know,

Randy Hulsey  1:02:42

that's what you have to look at it like, man, I've gotta up my game like you know, you want to do you want to be a good player, you got to play like those guys. You know, you can. I always said whether it was hockey or whatever you you have to play up. I told my kids that if you play with mediocre people, and people that are shittier than you, you're never going to be better. You got it you got to play with the better and be the less skilled player because it's going to push you to up your game, right? Whether it's music or whatever, the biggest fish in that pond, you

Andrew Diessner  1:03:15

need to find another pond. Absolutely.

Randy Hulsey  1:03:17

You got that. Right. Well, I wanted to shift gears real quick on you guys. And talk about a recent engagement. So the listeners had been listening to you guys chat with me and probably trying to correlate Jessen, Andrew, like what, what's what's the deal here? But there was recently a proposal, right? Talk to me about the brilliant and there has always been the say, Don't date anybody you work with. You guys broke the rule. You guys broke it all. So

Jess Ward  1:03:44

talk break my own rule as well, at best because I had been within Acrobat and Acrobat for like 10 years. And I swore after that, that I would not date another performer, performer and Eddie George. You know, it's it's actually so nice, because it's nice to be with a performer that understands what the world is, but I get you. But it's different enough that it's not kind of just like the same stuff. It's different circle a piece board approach to think so. Yeah, this is yeah, this is a good balance for us. Definitely.

Randy Hulsey  1:04:16

Where did the proposal take place?

Andrew Diessner  1:04:19

So when we were coming out of the pandemic, and opening shows, again, atomic saloon was opening back up. And so we were both in a rehearsal for a finale piece in the show. It was the first time I ever saw Jess and I walked into the showroom, and I looked to my left and there's this the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen just standing there. Now I could see her big blue eyes. They're just like so bright and I was just like she's like, just never had that feeling in my life and it just, it was all I could think about leaving that day and then I kind of was a creeper and stalked her a little bit. Attaboy. Like, yeah,

Randy Hulsey  1:04:59

I didn't We're

Andrew Diessner  1:05:01

now there was nothing smooth about outfits like that I love all your photos. And she was just, I just became not a sick obsession, but just like, gosh, I've just never seen anyone like this. And so I actually wanted to do it in that same booth that I saw and for the first time, so I called the bar director and manager at atomic saloon, and I asked him if we could organize this and they were like, Oh, my God, this is amazing. Yes, of course, and, and they refilled the confetti cannons and everything. And after the last show got out, like everybody went back into, you know, up into the mezzanine, and they let all the people clear out and I just taken her to dinner at STK. And so, at first I told her, I cover your eyes, and I tried to not get her to see where we were going. Because if we showed up to the plots, and she'd be like, I know where we're going. And we started walking in like 10 paces in, she's like, I can't she opens her eyes. And I'm like, Well, now you know.

Jess Ward  1:06:00

But I will say I was in heels and a pencil dress and he's trying to lead me through the entirety of Lulu on my face, I

Randy Hulsey  1:06:09

was gonna run so yeah,

Andrew Diessner  1:06:11

it was a little unfair. But I was like, alright, so I set it up, I set up like a little. I set up a j with an and and an A, that was all lit up like in the corner of the booth. And they gave us a bottle of champagne at the booth. And so it was really cool when I wrote her song, of course. So I could only get through, like a verse in a chorus. So that's all I played. So it was, I don't know how I played it, because I'm a very emotional person. Sure. Yeah, I'm singing this song to this girl that I want to make. And so I play her the song and then I take her up onto the stage. And then I get on my knee and asked her there and then they blew off the confetti cannons. And then all these cheers from the balcony because they were all just kind of hanging out there watching. It was really special.

Randy Hulsey  1:06:54

That's perfect. Yeah. That's cool. That's a cool story. Have you guys decided on a location for the wedding? Have you got that far yet?

Jess Ward  1:07:04

It's such a tough conversation because my family is all in Australia. Oh, and when my brother got married a few years back, because a lot of my both of my parents are from Western Australia. And my immediate family live in Sydney. And it was far for a lot of them to travel from Perth to Sydney. So to ask people to come from Australia to the States is a long way. But I don't know I think maybe Vegas just because we're here. And it seems like it's easy for us. And there has been a number of people that have said to me Oh, we can't wait to come to Vegas. And it's a good excuse to come over here. So

Randy Hulsey  1:07:41

well. There could be worse places to go. Right? I mean, yeah. Yeah. Well, will it be a big production you think or you're gonna have will it be a small wedding?

Andrew Diessner  1:07:49

I think we're trying to tame it. But it's probably gonna be it's gonna be tough. Yeah, it's

Randy Hulsey  1:07:54

gonna be tough to do that. If she has anything to do.

Jess Ward  1:07:57

I want it really small. Like I would love a very small wedding. But there's so many great people that have been so great to us here that we'd love to celebrate the day them.

Randy Hulsey  1:08:06

Yeah, I just married my daughter. And I told her I said, Man, I'll give you like 15 grand if you just don't have a wedding. It's like no, Dad. I want a wedding. Mathilde I was getting I was gonna get off cheap. She's like, now I think I want a wedding. I'm like not that's not what they're not. They are not. They're not cheap. Unfortunate. Everything is so and, you know, post pandemic, everything is through the roof anyway, right? What you could have done three years ago with a wedding is double the price. Now.

Andrew Diessner  1:08:43

It's nice that we're both creative enough that if we have to, you know, crawl down a rabbit hole to learn how to do some things ourselves.

Randy Hulsey  1:08:50

Sure. And we did that a lot, too. I mean, that makes perfect sense. We cut a lot of I wouldn't say cut corners, but we found ways to try to take the money and spin spin more of that money over here. Right? reallocate the money, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Well, congrats to you both. That's really cool. Andrew, what's coming up by way of performances and live music for you that you'd like to share with the listeners if they happen to find themselves out and in Vegas? Where can they find you and your band and what you're doing?

Andrew Diessner  1:09:22

Sure. I'm going to be my band almost criminal. We'll be at level up every Wednesday at MGM Grand from nine to one and we play all rock music, anything from you know, I would say the 70s all the way to early 2000s. And so we have residency there. They can find me there they can find me at the atomic saloon here and there. Just depends that kind of changes week to week. Magic Mike live I'm there fairly often as well. Where's that?

Randy Hulsey  1:09:52

Where's that happened?

Andrew Diessner  1:09:53

That said the Sahara Sahara. Yeah. And I'm also in another group at the Sahara called reckless in Vegas. Okay, I Just join this group I play bass and sing in that group and it's basically vintage Vegas meets rock and roll. So ton of old stuff, you know, by the Rat Pack. Yes. Everly Brothers. But all that stuff's redone in like a three piece rock format. And it's so fun and it's a great show. We have a couple of dancers we have horns, it's it's a whole thing. And in the guy, Mike Shapiro that runs that just put a really great thing together. So that is probably going to be going somewhere here in Vegas as a residency as well, soon, a couple of days a week. We're kind of still waiting to figure all that out. But yeah, that's that's mostly I think that covers most of the bases as far as

Randy Hulsey  1:10:41

that sucks that I'm not going to catch a show my man I was like, being a musician myself. Yeah, always looking for live music. I know. I know. But definitely I'll chat with you guys like post interview if I ever find myself coming back out here. I definitely will work a work the schedule outward where it happens. And how about you just like what what's coming up for you that you'd like to share with the listeners, my my way of performances and whatnot.

Jess Ward  1:11:10

So I work a couple of nights a week at a show called fantasy which is at Luxor. I'm nowhere there Wednesdays and Thursdays, again, is kind of a roll the dice schedule with atomic saloon as well. That's a super fun show. I do at least a couple days a month there. Otherwise, I'm doing mostly kind of private corporate work. I'm doing a big campaign for a jewelry company at the end of the month. So I didn't know you might see my face pop up somewhere. And then yeah, it was my fashion stuff. If they want to head to Instagram, it's at this chaos, which is k e y o s. So yeah, that's kind of it's kind of a bit of a transition moment for me. I think that yeah, I love performing. I hope that next time we chat, I will have a bunch more things on the table. But yeah, that's

Randy Hulsey  1:11:59

it sounds like you've got plenty on the table. But I don't know how you manage it all. Especially not not dealing with schedules any better than you deal with everything I was thinking about that for you to like being in met that many different groups. Like there has to be some overlap where you have to tell one Oh, can't play that night. I'm already playing. Yes, guys. Right. But I guess they have they have backup that can fill in form. Is that kind of how you're the band's role? Are you guys pretty static? Like, it's the same core guys all the time.

Andrew Diessner  1:12:30

Most of the stuff I'm doing right now is pretty core. Okay, cool. Okay, so it's, yeah, our lifestyle would not fit for a lot of people. Yeah, has might, June, two weeks ago looked very bleak. I think I maybe had eight gigs through the month. And now I'm working for the next 12 days straight. So it's just it changes all the time. And it's one of those things where the first person to call is probably going to get get me, you know, and that's just the way it is. If I commit to going into a show one night that I'm on call for, and I get a call for a corporate that pays three times as much so like, I have no issue kind of being like, Hey, I gotta go do this instead. Like, we have to take care of ourselves in terms of, you know, one week we may make, you know, $3,000 in the next week we're making 300 Yeah, it's it's pretty crazy. It's a

Randy Hulsey  1:13:22

roller coaster thing. Yeah. Well, you have to look out for yourselves. At the end of the day before you look out for anybody else. You mentioned I guess it was an Instagram handle earlier where can the listeners find you Jess on on social media?

Jess Ward  1:13:38

Instagram is probably the best place to find like my circus reels and some of my modeling stuff. So it's at Jess underscore Cirque which is CIR. Qu E. Yeah, I have a whole bunch of random things that we find.

Randy Hulsey  1:13:53

Yeah, exactly. So if you want to see Jess in the bathtub, that's where you gotta go to Instagram. Yeah, and how about you Andrew? We're working the listeners find mine is

Andrew Diessner  1:14:03

at Andrew J official. Okay, so very simple. But yeah, I have some rails up there of me singing and a lot of random stuff as well. Yeah, we're just posting it all and doing all the things we can

Randy Hulsey  1:14:16

yeah that's the that's the way you have to you have to do it and I need to bone up on on your stuff. I've seen a few of your videos which I've enjoyed but I need to go back and look at more of your stuff you kind of came you know into this later on. So I already been kind of doing my research on Jess and like I had asked you I said well are you going to bring Andrew that would be great if you if you could bring him right but I don't want to like not write him into the show too. Right. So I had to go out and start looking for some stuff and good stuff but I did see well it's been an absolute pleasure chatting with you guys and getting to know you and would love to come out and see you know, a show when we can work it out again. So thanks for braving the traffic and making it over here. was kind of a weird day with the hotels and but we made this work so great. I wish both you guys continued success and congrats on the upcoming wedding and whatnot. So that's that's exciting. You guys make sure to go out and follow Andrew and Jess on their socials and make sure to like, share and subscribe. Also ask the listeners to like, share and subscribe to the podcast. You can find us on Facebook at backstage pass radio podcast on Instagram at backstage pass radio, Twitter at backstage pass PC and on the website at backstage pass. radio.com You guys remember to take care of yourselves and each other. And we'll see you right back here on the next episode of backstage pass radio.

Adam Gordon  1:15:47

Thanks so much for joining us. We hope you enjoyed today's episode of backstage pass radio. Make sure to follow Randy on Facebook and Instagram at Randy Hulsey music and on Twitter at our Halsey music. Also make sure to like subscribe and turn on alerts for upcoming podcasts. If you enjoyed the podcast, make sure to share the link with a friend and tell them backstage pass radio is the best show on the web for everything music. We'll see you next time right here on backstage pass radio