WEBVTT

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This is Later with Lee Matthews,
The Lee Matthews Podcast more what You Hear

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weekday afternoons on the Drive. Lyric
Theater is at it again bringing you some

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stellar entertainments this week with the debut
of the production of Small. It stars

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Robert Montano, whom you've probably seen
in Bull, Prodigal Sun, Blue Bloods,

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and many many other things, and
he's joining us now to talk about

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the show. Roberts, this is
a chapter of your life. I don't

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know, given your acting career,
anybody would have guessed in their wildest dreams.

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Yeah. Well, you know it's
different for sure because I didn't start

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off as as a actor by any
means. You know. I started off

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as a racehorse jockey. And then
because I got too big, you know,

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which is why I named the place
small because I'm so not that I

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went into the world of dance and
which is where all the women were at.

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But like the reason I got into
singing choral music when I was in

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college, because that's where all the
chicks work. But then, you know

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what I realized when I was taking
ballet class early on that it wasn't easy

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and I had to really put my
nose to the grindstone and pay attention and

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do the work if I really wanted
to make something of myself, you know.

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But you know, Small has many
angels, and I just want to

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pay homage to my surrogate mom,
Gina Rivera, who had just unfortunately passed

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away recently, and she made this
very possible for Small to happen. And

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when I had asked her to host
a reading at the Signature Theater in New

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York, she agreed and she said, well, what is it about?

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And I told her was about my
trials and tribulations when I was a racehorse

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jockey. She was like, I've
known you since nineteen eighty nine and I've

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never known they never heard racehorse jockey, you know, So well, I

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don't look back, I look forward. And she was like okay, And

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she hosted and packed the house for
me, and the rest was up to

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the story. And so she made
it a promise and a goal that she

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would help me get to produce and
here we are. So it's almost an

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homage to Cheetah as well. This
is definitely an homage to Cheetah and my

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mother and father, Robert Montano's with
us. The name of the production is

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Small. It's a one man show, right, Yeah, there's a solo

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show for ninety minutes. It's very, very physical. There's a lot of

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movement, dance and riding. And
the sound design by three time Tony Award

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winner Brian Ronan. We put this
piece together, you know, which I

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wanted to bring authenticity to the show
and using the sound design and yeah,

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and I think we've accomplished that and
given people the excitement that I felt when

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I first started on the racetrack.
And yeah, you would play like different

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bits of you know, sound for
me and I said, no, nope,

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nope. He said, well,
what are you looking for? And

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I said, I want to give
them the real thing. So yeah,

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we put this together during the pandemic, and I think we came up with

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a good package. It's a good
thing. You had the time to be

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that painstaking about it. Yeah,
and I had a lot of wood food

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reserve. Yeah. Robert Montana is
here. He is the star and producer

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and writer of Small at Lyric Theater. Preview performance tonight at seven thirty,

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Then Thursday, seven thirty, Fridays, eight Saturday, eight Sundays at two

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tickets, Lyric Theater, OKC,
Dot org or four or five five,

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two, four, nine three one
two who, as a little boy says

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to mommy and daddy when they ask
what do you want to be when you

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grow up? I want to be
a jockey. Yeah. Well it didn't

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sit well with my mom, you
know, but my father made it possible

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for me by you know, using
my gym credit at school as long as

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I made it on time for academics
and and that worked out, you know.

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But yeah, it's a it's a
dangerous sport and people don't know a

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lot about it. And I've had
much success with this show recently at People's

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Life Theater in Pennsylvania, and I
felt like I was in a woman's book

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club because after the show was over
there so many women were staying afterwards and

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saying, you know, my husband
dragged me to come see the show,

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and I said, well, I
don't want to see what am I going

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to see? A story about a
boy and I want me to be a

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jockey. And they would tell me. Invariably they would pull the husband be

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pulling their shoulder back and their scene
and said sit back, you know,

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as they're riding with me, you
know, and they were feeling the story

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and they it's not just about you
know, me being a jockey. I

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mean, and I I couldn't have
been more happy with people telling me.

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This is far greater than a story
about that. There's a there's a mess,

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you know, to and everybody has
a little something in it, you

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know, about themselves. You know, well, and you had to put

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yourself through a lot when your body
started changing and you started to grow,

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Yeah, because you know you you
put your body through extremes and and things.

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When I when I started writing small, I was telling my mother and

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father, I said, look,
I'm gonna be sharing things that I'm not

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proud of and that I know it's
gonna hurt you. But I did things

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in my body that I that I
never thought I would do. I mean,

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I think about it now and I
think how crazy that was. But

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you know, when you're purging,
when you're taking drugs, and when you're

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doing everything you can to just you
know, stayed at one hundred and three

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pounds almost like a supermodel, you
know. Yeah, well yeah, but

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the only thing is they don't have
to get on a twelve hundred pounds,

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you know. So, you know, did you grow up around horses?

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No, you know. I I
was was my mother had made the mistake

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of taking me right from church to
Belmont Park Racetrack on Sunday, you know,

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And that's when I fell in love
with the horses, you know.

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But when I when I fell in
love with them, I was delivering newspapers,

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you know, for the Long Island
Press, and a customer of my

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brand new customer I smelled, which
I thought was peat moss, you know,

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And I told the Duncans, you
know, Jesus Christ, you have

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a very strong peat moss on your
law. And I said, no,

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no, no, that's probably horsemanre
on my tires. I was like,

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horsemanure, you work with horses,
and he said, yeah, my husband

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and I work at Belmont Park Racetrack. And I never begged so much,

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you know. And I would literally, because it was summertime. I would

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go out my window, jump off
the roof and go to Duncan's and they

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would take me to Bealmont. And
my mother would be like she was Puerto

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Rican, you know, she was
where that how have you went? You

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know, and this, yeah,
so you know, and I begged and

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my father said, you know,
how is it going to hurt? So

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let me go to a racetrack in
the mornings, and there was no turning

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back. You know. We're talking
to Robert Montano. He is the star

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and writer and producer of the one
man show Small Lyric Theater. It is

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performing tonight at seven thirty Thursdays at
seven thirty Fridays, eight Saturday, eight

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Sundays at two until the twenty fifth. Get your tickets at Lyric Theatered OKC

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dot org. In your career,
is there one particular horse that stands out

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as Oh my god, I'm glad
I don't have to ride that one again

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now? No? Well, yeah, yeah, those are horse by name

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of Waffle Sauce, you know.
And so it does sound like he went

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all over the place. He waffled, Well, you know what I mean.

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And I mentioned in my play,
I said, there's a saying on

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the racetrack that wherever you fall,
you own that piece of land. Let

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me tell you, Yeah, I
own a lot of this stay of Belmont

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Park, you know. But you
know I will say this about you know,

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the question is my favorite horse?
Ah, yes, And my favorite

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horse of all time was Ruffian and
she's tattooed on my right shoulder. And

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she was a Philly that was unbeaten
until they ran her in a match race

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that I was there at Belmont Park, Kentucky, derby winter of that year

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of foolish Pleasure. Yeah, and
she broke her leg in the race and

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it destroyed me and about fifty five
thousand people who were in that stand.

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Just you could hear a pinch.
Oh, I think I remember it.

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I'm a fan of horses. I
grew up around quarter horses and riding.

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Ah and I think I could ride. Riding and swimming and walking or two

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things I don't remember learning how to
do. But it always is heartbreaking when

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that happens. It's gotten my mother, who inspired me about horses, she

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doesn't even watch them anymore because she's
seen too many of that. It just

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breaks her heart. Yeah, no, it's it's hard. It's a horrible

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thing to see, you know.
But like in in any sport, I

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mean, it has its ups and
downs. I mean you see runners riding

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and you know, running in track, you know, and all of a

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sudden, boom, snap a hamstring, you know, I mean throwby race

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horses, you know, which people
may not understand. They are just born

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to run, that's all they're born
to do. That is all they want

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to run to do. Yes,
that's all. And you know what horses

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are different because they can you can
calm them down. The Thoroughbreds all build

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a little different. They're they're they're
a little more step and strong, you

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know. But you know thorover racehorses
that at the racetracks are taken care of

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and they're jakouzied and massaged and they're
given Guinness with their oats, you know,

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so they're they're doing okay. Yeah, Robert Montano, the show is

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small. You and I could talk
all day, I know. But the

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thing about it is you need to
go and see the show at Lyric Theater

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Tonight's and all the way through the
twenty fifth with different performances Thursdays at seven

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thirty, Friday eight, Saturday,
State and Sundays at two four or five

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five, two four, nine three
one two. To get your tickets or

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Lyric Theater, okay, see dot
org. Do you ever watch your race

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and say to yourself, I wish
I was back there every day every day?

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You know, I have still my
buddies like Johnny Velasquez, you know

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who's riding now, and you know
and He's probably looking for his Kentucky Derby

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horse this year. Richie Migliori and
I'm still very tight. You know Gary

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Stevens, who was in movie Seabiscuit, you know, we we did a

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command performance of Small this past summer
in Saratoga and a bunch of the trainers

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and jockeys and the whole racing community
came to see Small, and Gary was

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just a man. He just cried
in my in my arms and said,

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Bro, you said it like how
it is. Yeah, you're you're talking

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for us. I cannot thank you
enough. And the racing community has embraced

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the show, you know. For
me, you know, I was sweating

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because they'll they'll tell you exactly,
you know how it how it is.

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So but yeah, I'm very much
in contact with the racing industry and I

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you know, I don't forget them. We're still very connected, and you

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won't forget the production of Small at
Lyric Theater. Robert montano. I thank

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you for joining us and we look
forward to seeing the show. Thank you.

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I really appreciate it. Thanks for
listening to Later with Lee Matthews the

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Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to
listen to the Drive Live weekday afternoons from

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five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation