Brian Shoop: He found acting on a bank statement. Then he ended up on a Scorsese set.

Katharine Franco | From Biblical Mothers to a Mob Boss's Daughter

Connect with Katharine Franco: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katharinejfranco Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katharinefrancoactress Watch Virgin Birth (K-LOVE): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFg3TPuHzX0 Katharine Franco works across commercials, film, and television, and she is known for her range. In a single year she can play a biblical mother and a thriller's quiet menace and make you believe both. What surprised Cynthia is that none of it was the plan. Katharine was a shy kid who never performed growing up and came to acting later in life, after a friend pulled her backstage at a musical and the costumes in wardrobe hooked her. She comes from a family of working artists, and for ten years she has coached alongside her mentor and best friend Glenn Morshower. In this episode of The Cynthia Manion Show, Katharine walks Cynthia through the roles that built her: Elizabeth in the K-LOVE film Virgin Birth (now past a million views on YouTube and a K-LOVE Fan Awards nominee), Suzy in the thriller Kill Trip (the role her director Kristian McKay compared to Keith Richards), the western lead Dolorosa in Potters Ground, and a mob boss's daughter in Red Stone opposite Neal McDonough and Michael Cudlitz. She also shares what is next, and the advice that anchors all of it. "Know who you are, listen to your whispers." Subscribe to The Cynthia Manion Show: https://cynthiamanion.com/ #CynthiaManionShow #KatharineFranco #Actor #FilmAndTV #VirginBirth

Claire Brown | From Divorce to Empowerment, A PowerWoman's Journey

Connect with Claire:PowerWomen: https://thepowerwomen.org/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/powerw.o.m.e.n/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/claire.b.brown/PowerWomen Podcast (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@PowerWomenPodcastMove Realty: https://www.themoverealty.com/Book (Ring or Fling): https://a.co/d/07mJfAT8ForeWarn (Claire's recommended safety app for meeting new people): https://www.forewarn.com/After a divorce in 2015 left her starting over, Claire Brown called five women she barely knew and started a private Facebook group. Within three weeks it had passed 1,500 members, and today the original Little Rock group is more than 34,000 women strong. That group became PowerWomen: a podcast, a book, the Move Realty brokerage, and a nonprofit connecting women across the country.Timestamps:00:00 From Divorce to Power Woman01:05 Escaping Home Through Real Estate03:31 Finding Purpose in the Work05:12 Life Seems Crooked06:58 Divorce and Starting Over08:52 Heartbreak and Self Discovery09:28 Ring or Fling, Claire's Book10:06 Needing Women Friends12:08 The Facebook Group Takes Off15:05 Scaling Into a Media Brand17:44 Outsourcing to Grow Faster19:33 Building Move Realty Mentorship22:41 Nonprofit Retreats and Healing23:45 Addressing Trafficking Survivors25:06 Anonymous Post to Lunch26:49 Healing Into Advocacy27:30 Platform and Safety Fears28:43 Lessons From Survivors31:15 Grooming Explained33:26 Grooming on Roblox: A Close Call37:36 Report and Men Lead39:27 Women's Healthcare Gaps43:30 Purpose and Growth Habits46:12 Power Woman Vision47:58 Online Backlash and Burnout49:47 Carrying the Impact51:03 Community Mission and Farewell"This platform is not for me. It's for the voices of others to be elevated so that it can help the masses."Subscribe to The Cynthia Manion Show: https://cynthiamanion.com/#CynthiaManionShow #ClaireBrown #PowerWomen #MoveRealty #RingOrFling #WomenSupportingWomen #PersonalGrowth

Cynthia Manion AMA: Are You Living Your Five-Star Happiness Life?

Connect with Cynthia: Website: https://cynthiamanion.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cynthiamanion Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cynthiamanion/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cynthiamanion LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cynthiamanion X: https://x.com/cynthiamanion No guest this week. Just Cynthia, her bookshelf, and one question: how happy are you, on a scale of five stars, right now in this moment? This AMA episode of The Cynthia Manion Show is an hour in Cynthia's living room. She opens with the five-star happiness check-in, then shares what her week looked like. She tells the story of meeting Pastor Ed at CBC San Antonio after being told he wasn't seeing visitors (she walked past four security guards to get there). She holds up two books Pearl Bailey inscribed to her back when they were classmates at Georgetown, studying Jewish life and thought with Rabbi White. She talks about her sister Carolyn's pottery, her mother's black pearl ring from the Seychelles Islands, and how that ring became the title of her first novel. Halfway through, Cynthia says something quiet that changes the shape of the hour: "My little list of everything I wanted to accomplish in my life, I've done now. So now it's time for a brand new list." From there, she picks up book after book from past guests and walks the audience through what each one gave her. The hour closes with a lightning round and the one sentence she wants everyone to carry home. "Are you living your five-star happiness life? Five stars every moment. I know it's impossible, but it is possible. Every day has perfect moments. Focus on them." Subscribe to The Cynthia Manion Show: https://cynthiamanion.com/ #CynthiaManionShow #AMA #FiveStarHappiness #CEOofYourLife #BlackPearl #SavannahSeas

Sabrina Mendoza: She Found The Toxic Avenger as a Kid. Now She Edits Lloyd Kaufman's First Noir.

Connect with Sabrina Mendoza: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felonybologna/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sabrina.u.mendoza/ Short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvKZoAzggS0 Troma Entertainment: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tromateam/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TromaEntertainment Sabrina Mendoza found Troma the way a lot of kids find a lifelong calling. Late at night, on the internet, in the early days of Netflix streaming. Under the horror section she saw Cannibal the Musical and The Toxic Avenger, and after she watched Toxie she knew. Every movie should be made like this. Years later, she walked up to Lloyd Kaufman at Comic-Con, told him he was her inspiration, and was promptly asked to show him her work. She was too nervous. He handed her his card. She never followed up. It took a pandemic, a Brandon Bassam Q&A, a chance meeting with Garrett Sullivan over matching cigarette cases, and a slow, patient climb from showing up unpaid at the Troma office to becoming the editor and assistant director on Lloyd's first film noir, The Power of Positive Murder. In this episode of The Cynthia Manion Show, Sabrina takes Cynthia inside all of it. Two years of editing in the coldest room at Troma. The summer of 2024 shooting upstate in Port Jervis. The moment Lloyd sat her down and asked her to make this baby with him. Running Tromadance and the 3,900 submissions that came through this year. Tromathon at the Mahoning Drive-In. Her own short films Coast to Coast AM, Are You Winning Son?, and Vlog 37 Ecuador. And the Edgar Allan Poe anthology Lloyd has now blessed her to direct. When Cynthia asked what she would say to the artist sitting at home tonight with a camera, an idea, and no permission, her answer was instant: "Shoot something right now. I dare you. I dare you. Make a five minute short right now. I'll even give you a prompt. Give me a movie about taking out the garbage. Do something with that." Subscribe to The Cynthia Manion Show: https://cynthiamanion.com/ #cynthiamanionshow #SabrinaMendoza #Troma #LloydKaufman #IndieFilm #DIYFilmmaking #Tromadance #IndependentCinema #ThePowerOfPositiveMurder

Lloyd Kaufman: 53 Years of Troma, The Toxic Avenger, and Your Favorite Director's Favorite Director

Connect with Lloyd below! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unclelloydkaufman/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tromateam/ Troma Now (streaming): https://watch.troma.com/ Troma Direct (store): https://tromadirect.com/ Before James Gunn, before Trey Parker and Matt Stone, before Samuel L. Jackson's first movie, before Marisa Tomei's first movie and Vincent D'Onofrio's first movie, there was Lloyd Kaufman. Lloyd went to Yale to study Chinese. He walked into a dorm room with a black-and-white portable TV, met a film fanatic named Michael Hertz, and a few years later the two of them founded Troma Entertainment. Fifty-three years on, Troma is the longest-running independent movie studio in history. Lloyd and Michael have each been married to the same wife the entire time. In this episode of The Cynthia Manion Show, Lloyd walks through the moment at the Yale Film Society when a Jack Benny / Ernst Lubitsch film (To Be or Not to Be) made him decide to give what he had to the world. He talks about the early-career run that included Rocky in Philadelphia and Saturday Night Fever in New York, the three mentors who shaped Troma (John Avildsen, Stan Lee, and Roger Corman), and the 1984 shoot of The Toxic Avenger in Hell's Kitchen where Cynthia was chased down a hospital corridor by Toxie alongside very uncooperative spray-painted pet shop rats. Four decades later, the two of them hugged in person for the first time at Creature Feature in Gettysburg. We also get into the new $50 million Toxic Avenger with Peter Dinklage, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon, his daughter Charlotte Kaufman's Oscar-nominated documentary The Alabama Solution on HBO, Lily Hayes Kaufman's Occupy Cannes (10 years in the making, executive produced by Roger Corman), and Troma Dance, the 28-year-old festival inspired by Trey Parker that runs September 4-6 in New York City with free entry, free admission, and no VIP policy. "I'm most proud that I have the same partner for more than 50 years and also the same wife too. That's a big deal." Subscribe to The Cynthia Manion Show: https://cynthiamanion.com/ #cynthiamanionshow #lloydkaufman #troma #toxicavenger #independentfilm #jamesgunn #treyparker #cultclassic