5 Things That Happened During Pride

It has been fucking crazy. It started back in April. We did Miami Pride and that was wild. Set the record out Miami Pride for the most people in attendance, which was honestly nuts. I mean, it was my first live performance since Dreamed of the tour, which was also kind of a weird trip because it was like, literally the last words that I sang were d R E A M. That's terrifying and now I'm Karma's a bitch. Like.

It was definitely a contrast for sure, and I wasn't sure if like the audience was going to react a certain way, if the crowd was gonna react a certain way and the reaction was absolutely bananas. So we've done some more Pride performances after Miami. Oh I never, I never said the number two. Miami had a fifty over fifty five thousand people show up, which was bonkers, and then we did Pittsburgh Pride. We did London Pride at

Mighty Hoopla. We did La Pride, which was crazy, and then we just did Chicago Pride, which was also not so in New York Pride. Chicago Pride, we also set the record. I set the record for most people in attendance at Chicago Pride as well, which is crazy, especially

because I went on stage at two o'clock. I was the first slot of the day and that for anyone who doesn't know festivals like people kind of come throughout the day and then like the headliners at night, and so it was very scary for me to be first on the day atopm I was like, WHOA, no one's gonna show up, and it was they had to stop letting people in. The wait to get in was two hours. People were hopping fences. It was I haven't gotten a number from them, but they said it was the most

people they've ever had. At Pride Fest in Chicago, I turned around while I was on stage and there was just a sea of probably two thousand people behind the stage in the I Hop parking lot. Like I I have never seen anything like it. It was honestly crazy,

and of course New York Pride. I got to talk about my new little baby Guilty Pleasure, which I'm so being stoked about currently in real time as I am filming this podcast, I am planning on getting a guilty Pleasure tattoo tomorrow, which I've told no one, including my own mother, so that's gonna be a surprise for sure. But uh yeah, I'm starting my little, my little patchwork sleep,

I guess. Anyways, not the point of this podcast. Point of this podcast and why I wanted to start off with a little Pride chit chat is because today I'm gonna be going through the five things that happened during Pride, during Pride Fest, during my Pride performances that I didn't necessarily share with the world. You saw it, but you don't really have context of what it was or what happened,

or maybe you didn't see it. And I got five things written down that I'm gonna take you through, walk you through, give you some inside scoop on, so you better buckle the fuck up. Honestly, I'm gonna start this one off strong. I there's this thing floating around social media. First thing that I want to talk about is that I did poppers at Pride. Now, if you don't know what paupers are, google it. If you're young, don't google it, don't google it. If you don't know what poppers are,

stop listening to this podcast now. But if you do know what poppers are, keep on listening with me. Anyways, if you're over the age of eighteen. Essentially, poppers are a muscle relaxer. Gay men use it. It's a very it's very common thing. I if you wanna it, sure, I sure, that's all I'll say. It's up to you if you think I did poppers or not. I am a gay man, so we'll see. Second thing that I want to talk about, this one now has some more story.

So there's this clip of me going around social media right now that while I was on stage at Pride Chicago, I did a jump, a tuck jump into a splat split. Now, this this was a game time decision. I was supposed to originally, because normally I have six dancers right now,

there's a little bit of drama going on. One of my dancers couldn't do it, so then I had another dancer signed in to do it, and then me and that dancer got into a little bit of falling out and so we I was like, you know what, don't come. It's where I'm good. I'll do it with five. So the original dance that couldn't come is my best friend and so we normally do this part together on Full

Out Freak. It's in my song Balance Baby, and I essentially bend over and she essentially hits it from behind and she lives her best life and I live my best life and it's very fun and it's funny joke anyways, because the phylin and I had a falling out, and I was comfortable doing this with the fillin as well, but I was like, nah, nope, I'll just do it five. I literally pulled her out of the set the morning of rehearsals. I was like, Nah, this isn't gonna work,

but I yeah, I didn't. We had an odd number. Now, so Balance maybe essentially the song starts and it has six parts, right, it has I can do pricey, I can do cheap, I can do modest, I can go full on freak, I can go runway or show up in jeans. And so each of the six dancers gets one and I do it with each of them. Well, having five dancers, I was like, all right, we gotta we gotta make this work somehow. So I actually ended up taking balance maybe down to four dancers to make

it make a little bit more sense. So we had one of the dancers, kick Rocks, just go take a breather off side stage while we do balance maybe. And so the original game plan was I don't know if anyone remembers this, but back in the day, I went fucking viral another meal of mine. Are we surprised not

at all? For the TikTok It's Confen season, then all the girls are anyways that TikTok and I pumped the air I guess for the first time, and that went super duper viral and people were like, Jojo, what is this? What is happening? Then that kind of became a thing, and so I was gonna bust that move out to just be like a little bit of a I'm your guilty pleasure. Here you go, remember this one. And that was the whole game plan. And then I was in the dressing room before the show and I had this plan.

I was doing it with the dance. I was like, full on freak. And then I told the dances. I was like, oh my god, I had this dream last night that I did a full jump splat split and they were like, no, you did not, and I was like, I literally did. And I was like, imagine if I did it on stage, that's ridiculous. I literally can't even do a split. And then I tried to split in the dressing room. It didn't hit. Like I could not do a split, not even doing the jump splait, just

like stretching getting into a split anyway. So I was like, that could never happen, like a stick to the play on ha. Once we were on stage, my adrenaline kicks in like no other. Now Balance Baby is pretty deep into the set, so we open up with Karma, then we do Yesterdays, Tomorrows Day, choose your fighter, and then Balance Baby and then I talk and then we do Boomerang and now we had guilty Pleasure. But at Chicago Bride, we had those six songs. Wow, we're already up to

a six songs. That that's crazy. I didn't even realize that is that true? Karma Yesterday's Fighter, Balance Baby, Boomerang, Guilty, Okay, okay, six song set. Yeah, that's crazy, that's wild. Anyways, mind blown, So Balance Baby. I was looking around it was so hot outside. The dancers needed a moral boost. I needed a moral boost, and so I was like, you know what, I'm gonna full fucking send this and I went for the jump splat split game time decision no one expected.

If you watch the clip and you watch my dancer's face, they're all like, no way. And then my dancer, David came up. He does the next part with me, and so he came up and like helped me up because everyone was like, how did you just get down? Like what? And yeah. Then, long story short, I had to do the rest of the performance with two poled muscles. I pulled my left quad and I pulled my right ash cheek and I'm still paying for it today. My back still hurts and my back hurts because of that. That's

the only thing that I did different. I do the show every day. I run the show like two or three times a day. And so that's literally the only thing that I did differently and I got knocked on my ass because of it. Was it worth it? Though? Absolutely? I would do it a hundred times over again if I could. So then we get this. Okay, I'm gonna talk about the third thing in a second, but the whole thing that after was like, oh my god, you

have to keep it. You have to keep it. And I was like, you guys, like I can't do it again. Like it was like pure like in the moment, like if I had to go to the studio and rehearse that I would never happen. I was like, well, we'll see, I guess anyways. Uh, point number three let's keep it pushing. And number three on things that happen during Pride. Pride performances that they don't share is my speech that I give to the dancers and like kind of the pre

show ritual. Every show, I have the same thing that we do. We have the same one up that we do. You're gonna fucking hate on me and you're gonna call me a giant doller, and I don't care because it is fun and we do it every single time. And it gets us in the mood. YouTube Mickey's Mouser Size. That shit is a seven minute warm up that will change your life. Mickey Mouse tarks to you and he's okay, small ump circles, going forward, orm straight out, I'm beginning

one do one do? I mean he talks you through the whole thing, and then Goofy comes in and then you shake rarms like Pluto. I mean, it is the warm up of a century, last seven minutes. It's so fun. It gets you in the vibe. Then we sped and we listen to some MJ. And mind you, all my danswers do this like we all look forward to it, like when's it gonna be down to the mouser size, Like we are full adult humans. We drink alcohol on stage and we do Mickey's fucking mouser size to warm up.

That's a real thing anyways, And if anyone doesn't believe me, there is video proof on that, and I will sure as hell share it because it's so much fun. Anyways. And then right before we go, so that's like the order of operations is we do our warm up, so we get in wardrobe, we keep warming up kind of for like an hour before the show. Once it hits the fifteen minute mark, that's when and typically my sound guy comes in. He brings me my in ears and

my mom puts my in ears in. I don't know what I'm gonna do without that girl one day, Like fuck that, I'm not doing this court without her. There's literally no way anyways. So we comes fits my in ears in, gets my costume all saddled on me, make sure we're good to go, test the in ears, test the microphone. A new thing is we don't do a sound check. That is very new to me, and normally I always do a sound check. This is like get on stage and hope for the best, which works every

time so far, no fuck ups yet anyways. So then we do that. Then it is time for my speech to the dnswer. So I give this speech like two minutes before we go out on stage. Should get everyone in the right mood. Now, what I say the thing is is our set is very very hard. My set is very stamina draining. It's very exhausting. You're tired, you're sweaty. It's a lot. And so I always give my danswers the same speech and I have done this same speech

since I was thirteen. Like I always say this, I always say, look, no matter what, you're gonna be tired, you're gonna be hot, you're gonna be sweaty, your legs are gonna hurt, you're gonna be out of breath, You're gonna be exhausted, and no one gives a flock. I say, the audience is here for a show. We're gonna give them a show. Say I will care about you after. I will bring you ice. After, I'll get you k T tape. After, I will get you water, after, I

will do whatever you need after. During on stage, we give the audience what they came here to see, and we put on this show. And remember you are those people now I saw them. I always say, you worked so hard in rehearsal, you gave everything you got. Now is the time to enjoy it. And I am very not tough, not mean at all in rehearsals, but I'm very I want it to be really good, and so I'm very serious. I think is a great way to

put it in rehearsals. But then when it comes time to on stage, I make it very clear to everyone, like, look, you are gonna mess up. You are gonna fall, you are gonna trip, you are gonna be silly, you are gonna laugh. Their things are gonna happen, but this is where they're meant to happen. You put in all the hard time in rehearsal, all the serious time and rehearsal to get on stage and just enjoy it, because it does come on, and you got to enjoy it every

single time. We will never get that same performance ever again. And that's the leason that I learned very very young, and so I'm happy that I can pass that on because a lot of people didn't learn that lesson very young, and a lot of people are still stressed when they go on stage. And so I make it very clear to my dancers, like, look, we're on the stage for a good time. I don't care what the fuck you do. Like we laugh about our mess ups after and then we get in the studoing fix and we make sure

they're never gonna happen again. But while we're on stage, fucking we all just have fun. Literally nothing matters. And then I asked the dances if they need anything, and then we put our hands in the circle and oh, and then I forgot about this, but I give a little prayer, and this is something that I actually never used to do. And then I did Dancing with the Stars, and Jena got me in a phase of praying before

I go on stage. And then I went on tour and I started praying with the dancers normally like I did with Jenna on Dancing with the Stars. And then I realized not everybody believes in the same thing, and so I always give a prayer that is like, all right, everybody pray to who you pray to? Ib were rocks in crystals, tell Santa Claus, what's up. Whatever you believe in, whoever you believe in, let's go and let's chat to them.

And then I I say a little no matter what, please help us be safe, happy, have fun, to help the audience be safe, happy, have fun, and we say thank you to whatever it is you believe in, and then we rock and freaking role and then I have this little little plea show vitual that I do my myself. I say my cute little prayer. I say, please keep everybody safe. I say one to the seventy went to the Vestny went to the vest, and one of everyone

to the toone. Really wanted to an advis e Xemney because Gusney New Knock Knocks still do that before every show, same thing I always did on Dance Moms. And then yeah, we get out on stage, we'd kick ass and it's a bomb ass time and then that's pretty much it. That's pretty much a pre show routine. Post show, we honestly just celebrate. Like pos show. We're never as tired as we think we're gonna be, so it's always it's

always a good time. You can never complain. I mean, like we get to do what we love for our job. All right, I'll take it all day long. Oh right, I got two more things. We're gonna end with my favorite. So right now I'm gonna talk about my morning getting ready. So if you don't know, I do all of these crazy makeup looks, right anything from The Black Beast, which I didn't create, the original Black Beast makeup look from the music video. But now anytime that we do the

Black Beast's look, I do it. When I did the iHeart Awards, I did the makeup and I did it on stage. I did the makeup, but just the music video itself, I did not do it however doesn't matter. I mean, I guess at this point I should just fucking take credit for it, because apparently I take every credit for things that I don't do. It's show me the clip, Show me the clip where I said I wrote Karma. Show it to me, please be my guest, because it doesn't exist. I will put my life on

that one. I will say, though, I'm honored about that that people think I'm a Mandela effect now because they're like, oh, JoJo's, let you wrote Carma When I wrote Corma JoJo's who I swear see that video? Bitch, No you have it? No you have it. That video doesn't fucking exist. Fight me, dare you? Anyways, I need to stay on track. Clearly I'm getting carried away right now. But my morning routines I do all my own makeup, so the night before it consists of me figuring out what am I gonna

do tomorrow, what's gonna match this costume? And it's always the process is a little different, and I try to keep things inspired by what is to come next to kind of keep people guessing. So most recently Chicago Pride, I did Ryanstone crossed on my face which turned out to be a big hit. I actually wasn't feeling it myself, and then all of a sudden, the world really really liked it, and I was like, oh shit, thanks guys, like y'all made me into it. This is the first.

Normally it's the opposite. Normally I'm into it in the world like this fucking sucks, and I'm like thanks. But this one I was like, ah, this isn't really good. And then the world was like, wait, we love this queen. You're eating how many letters do just Joe? Just see what have in it? Eight? And I was like, oh, we like this one. Okay, I guess I'll do it again. But yeah, I wake up every morning, I order a

coffee or a duncan. I try to work out before some mornings it doesn't happen, but I do like to work out before a showday because it just kind of gets my body like up and at him. But then I allow myself four hours to get my makeup and hair done and I do it all myself. It's a ball. I love doing it. It's very relaxing to me. It's very creep to me. I love getting to be fun

and creative and like making things absolutely perfect. Something that is very strange though, is I can't do art on a piece of paper, but I can do it like no other on my face. I don't know why. I don't know what it is, but something about my handworking that way. People have told me to try painting like backwards because I think I would be better at it. I guess, I don't know. Beats me, but yeah, it's pretty much every morning and then I allowed the four hours.

Typically I finish around three hours, so then I spend like the last hour like dilly Dolly and packing up, making tiktoks whatever, having fun. Then yeah, I take a little touch up bag. I barely do running touch ups. So like, if my face moves, it moves, I don't care. What are you gonna do about it? Anyways? All right, The last thing that I want to talk about is one of my favorite fucking parts of my Pride Fest Pride Show, Pride set. Oh it's my favorite part, and

it is when I drink the alcohol on stage. The crowd goes absolutely ballistic. This idea of doing this stem from I was in rehearsals and we were starting new routine. Yesterday tomorrow is today and my twenty first birthday had just passed, and I was like, I want to fucking take a shot before this, and M. Gargen was like, all right, judge on niho do it and I was like, all right, let's do it. So then it kind of

is how we like made this song make sense. But then it just kind of came like a big thing. So the first one that I did it at was La Pride, and at La Pride I brought out a jug of Tito's and people were like, whoa, what are you doing? Is it real? Is it fake? And I was like, bitch, it is what it fucking is. It's a bottle of Tito's. What do you think it is? And yeah, I do my biggest on stage. It is fun. It always throws me for a loop after the fact

because my adrenaline is going so hard. I mean, I slid on stage in shorts the other day at La Pride and I didn't feel it, got up, had a massive ass rash. I have a massive rash. Okay, it's not massive, let me not be dramatic, but I have a big rash on my knee right now from Chicago Pride, from when I did my jump split, or maybe it was from when I did grinding on Monday. I don't know. One point, when I was fucking the floor, I got a big rash, but I don't feel it when it's happening.

And for some reason, that same thing happens with the shot of alcohol, like I still taste it, I guess, but it's like I don't, I don't, I don't. It's not as if I was like sitting at a bar taking a shot like that fuck me. But on stage, I'm like, let's go, let's keep parting. However, I did decide that my dancers, if they're gonna keep fucking bringing it out, they need to bring out a chaser with it, like one bring out the alcohol, one bring out the lime. And it's kind of a fun thing that we do.

I get options of alcohol and then I let my dancers pick which one they bring out, and uh, because it fun it Giu's it interesting? It keeps me guessing. I will say the Fireball was better than the Tito's, and I mean no shade to Titos. I love of Tito's, but Fireball was more fun, especially because I got the

crowds interaction with Fireball. I don't know. If something came over me when I was doing my speech, I wanted to take another shot, and so I was like, all right, fuck it, we all sing Fireball and the whole crowd da da da da da da da da da da da, And that was a pr tea. So I think, I don't know. I love the game of letting my dancers pick, but I think I am gonna stick to Fireball for a second because the crowd and reaction was so good and also, just like fire I can down it and

we'll live and it's fine and it's great. Yeah, Okay, I feel like that is five things that you don't know, or you didn't know the stories behind, or five things and I just wanted to rant about we'll never know. Honestly. I love y'all. Thank you so much for listening to JO just so now I got some real fun episodes coming up. I know I've been a break for a second, but we are back. We are better than ever. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy for the

way this fucking career is going right now. Thank you for making me your guilty pleasure. Sure, if you haven't a pre saved pre ad or if we are past seven eleven at midnight, so technically seven twelve, be sure to go stream Guilty Pleasure all my songs on the EP. I'm so stoked out if we got Choosing Fighter yesterdays, Tomorrow, Today, Balance Baby Karma, and of course Guilty Pleasure. I am so proud of the music video. Go watch the music video.

You gonna die. It is so bad. We brought the Jojo bos in, we brought the fucking slim in Ah so so good. Anyways, I love y'all. Thank you for listening. Go check out that and I'll see y'all next time. Jesus, thank you so much for listening. Everybody. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Jojosua Now podcast. Be sure to write us a review and maybe if you're feeling to leave us five stars, I'll see you next week