🌟 The Art of Being Seen: Frankie Ann on Storytelling, Showbiz, and Self-Worth

Elaine welcomes Frankie Ann — a multi-talented singer, dancer, comedian, and producer — for a heart-to-heart about visibility, validation, and the messy beauty of creative life. Frankie Ann shares her journey through the highs of national tours and TV appearances, the lows of health setbacks, and the ultimate realization: your art becomes more powerful when you stop seeking approval and start creating from love.

Takeaways:

• Early recognition doesn’t guarantee smooth sailing — persistence is key.
• Success without self-worth can feel empty.
• Vocal charisma and pacing can turn any story into a showstopper.
• What you want at 20 may not be what you truly need at 40 or 50.
• True mastery comes when you perform for you first

1. “Shrink or shine? The story you tell yourself decides.” ✨
2. “Confidence isn’t perfect. It’s presence.” 💃
3. “Stop apologizing for existing. Own your voice.” 🎤🔥
4. “Humor connects faster than any PowerPoint.” 😂💡
5. “Don’t wait to feel ready. Speaking your truth makes you ready.” 🌈✨

You can reach FrankieAnn here:

FrankieAnnecomedy@gmail.com

Hopefest, Thursday Oct 9th at 6:30pm

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hope-fest-2025-tickets-1571856026689?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=wsa&aff=ebdsshwebmobile

Connect with your Host, Elaine Williams:
Check out Captivate the Mic Podcast on Elaine's YouTube Channel
Check out the Captivate the Crowd Website
Follow Elaine on Social- LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok
Want to schedule a free chat with Elaine? Click here to book a zoom date!

Transcript

0:04

this is Elaine Williams with Captivate The Mic. This is a podcast to help you become a more effective speaker communicator. Whether you're doing videos, whether you're on stage, whether you're podcast guesting, I am using my 50 million years of experience and having amazing guests. And you are going to love this next guest. I met her through another comedian, Craig Shoemaker. This woman is so inspiring. She has amazing stories and what I love most though, I want you to listen. Her stories are great, but she has beautiful vocal variety. Beautiful vocal charisma. She pauses. She does great pacing. She's truly a master storyteller in addition to fabulously talented and inspiring. So this is my friend Frankie Ann. A comedian, speaker, coach, producer, director, she's done so many things. You are in for such a treat, and I can't wait for you to fall in love with her the way I have fallen in love with her. So enjoy I Hello and welcome to Captivate the Mic with Elaine Williams. You are in for such a treat. I am so delighted to have this phenomenal woman on my show. We met through a mutual comedian, Craig Schumaker. This woman has toured the country. She's a superstar. She's danced with CNC Music Factory. She sang with Barbara Streisand. Frankie Ann, I am so excited that you're here. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. And I have to make clarification. I didn't dance with CNC Music Factory. I sang my own single. I opened up for them. Okay. I stand. Don't wanna, I don't wanna take credit from any dancers who are back to working their off. Okay. So just if you're in your fifties I loved CNC Music factory. Gotta make you sweat, do you like, I just remember just jamming out to them. I loved them. I thought they were so cool. And yeah. Yeah, it was fun. I actually was I had my single standup had just come out and. I was working in quad recording studios in Manhattan, where Martha Washington was recording one of her original singer. Now, Martha Wash was the vocalist. Everybody dance now. She was the extra singer. Done, and Freedom was working at the studio. Like mixing up time timeframes, but Freedom had been working. I knew Freedom from when I was just, producing and writing in my own studio there at Quad, he was working at Quad. Then he became part of CNC Music Factory. Then Martha came to me and they asked me to choreograph the Martha Tour, which ended up coinciding when I, my, my record was coming out. And so that's how I also ended up. With CNC, it was all these things happening very quickly at the same time. So I got ended up touring with my record stand up as the opening act. So that was really exciting. That is one thing I really wanna talk about. So we met a couple years ago and then we over Zoom. I was taking a class and then we met when I was in LA and visiting my cousin and had this fabulous brunch. You have such an interesting. Passionate, beautiful story. And I think that a lot of people could get inspiration and comfort and motivation from it. Can you just tell people a little bit about your, how you started? Yeah, on East Coast. I think I started young. I was in the studios AFR, a very dear friend of mine to this day. Her name is Lisa Ratner, very reputable and successful. Songwriter found me in high school. And so her and another incredible vocalist, Sandy Farinas, that was Lisa Ratner and Sandy Farina. I found me in high school. She was substitute teaching and they had written a song for Streisand. They had written a song for Dolly part and they were up and coming, young songwriters. So she was just supplementing teaching and she grabbed me and this other friend of mine and brought us into the studios. And my first foray in singing was doing backup with Sandy. Jingles and Lisa went on to do more jingles with Sandy and went on to do more music and write, hit songs so some people might not know what a jingle is. So can you explain that? So a jingle is a commercial, an audio commercial, such as Sandy did I don't know if I can sing them on and you, I, without having any kind of beeps on online, but commercials for major companies. Sandy did Budweiser, she did JC Penney. The one I did was TWA and seven up. I did backups for those on, so it's jingles, it's singing, it's music that was on commercials. So if you go, if you booked a national one, you were woo. So I just thought a lot of people might not know what a jingle is, and they were major writers in that industry. And so I got, that's how I got my start. In the music industry that way. I was working, I was playing accordion before that and music before that. Okay. Wait, can you just back up? So you were in a World Cup accordion contest. My twin and I, we we had a cousin who actually like a third cousin, my mother's cousin of cousin who was highly reputable, Madeline Bel Fury in the accordion world. And so when I first wanted to start on the violin, I brought that home and they pulled that away from me immediately. No string instruments for you. And then they put me on the accordion with my twin and we went off and did competition after competition. And I think it was, we were 17. Wow. I was still in high school and it was in Washington DC the competition, and we took first place in the World Cup al competition. So anybody out there who used to play the accordion as a kid, I might have known you'cause it was a very small circuit, but yet nationwide, that's who knew about the accordion. Okay, so now I wanna know about the dance. I love the dance story with your teacher and the mentor and. That's a deep story. I was. Going into high school in, in on our school system. I was raised in Maplewood, in South Orange community and New Jersey and the school systems we went to ninth grade in the junior high and then 10, 11, 12 in high school. And I was, I was always fighting my weight as a kid and I wanted to dance and I was always watching movie. Musicals were a big deal for me, and I wanted to dance. I wanted to do what they did. My, my family, we didn't have a lot of money. We had a lot of kids, five kids. And a lot of, pressures financially. So I babysat to raise some money to take an adult school summer school program through the high school system and the high school dance teacher was teaching it that summer. So I was taking the class twice a week and I was just loving it. And I think prior to that, all I did was like a ballet class locally, which I also babysat to take lessons, but I was not trained. And. By the end of the summer, every, actually, every class after our dance class, through the summer, we would swim. She was also the swim coach and we had access to the swimming pool, and it was few weeks, maybe six or eight weeks, may, probably eight weeks. The last class, I had auditioned for the company. I forgot to say that I had auditioned for the company at the end of my year in ninth grade, and I did not make it into the company. And it's a company that in high school you would give up your lunch period, you would eat lunch in the studio there was a dance studio full on floors and mirrors. Her name was Janet Hicks. She would she fought for that with the school system and had that built out. And we would literally. Give up our luncheon and dance for two hours and train. And she would bring people in from Manhattan. And I didn't get in and I was terrified and I was scared. And yet I took the summer school program and at the end of the summer she swam up to me after our last class and invited me to be part of the company. And yeah, that was pretty special. So I that's amazing. And then I love it that you would, she would drive you into Manhattan on a Saturday. You have, oh my goodness. And you, and then you, and you would learn, you would work with Broadway choreographers at Steps and Broadway dance, and then you would, she would, and she would drive you back, and then you would teach everybody the combination. She would drive me in on a Saturday. It was Saturday morning now she would come pick me up from my family home and then we would drive back into Manhattan and I had no idea the geography at the time, what was actually happening. But she was literally driving West 25 to 30 minutes to pick me up to go east into Manhattan, another 45 to an hour. And then. I take the class at, it was Jojo's Dance Factory at the time, and then she would take me back west home where she would then have to go back east to her home. That was a lot for somebody to do, and I didn't recognize that for years. I didn't understand it for years. I was a kid. Isn't that funny? What a gift. And so you got to be exposed to all of this beautiful talent in New York City and then, they say if you wanna learn something, teach it. So coming to teach it, that must've been amazing. It was wonderful, and yet it was frustrating because again, I was not trained and Right. And I remember you're late to the party, which I can relate. I felt very I became a dancer in my, at 19, I always felt like, oh, I was scrambling, and I broke down one day. I was crying'cause I was frustrated. I wasn't getting the combination. I'm like, I'm never gonna be good at it. Like she goes, child, just relax. She goes, this is an intermediate advanced class and you're a beginner. And I'm, and then I'm like, what? What are you doing? Taking me into these classes? But she saw me, she saw my talent. She pushed, she saw your heart. She saw my heart, she saw my talent, she saw me. And I worked to develop and teaching it to the My peers on a Monday was a great opportunity. I love it. I the choreograph. Frankie and I cried a lot too in my dance company. I remember just feeling such passion and a frustration that I didn't have more training and technique. And now a quick message. Are you a female business owner or a female in corporate and you know it's time to work on your speaking. It's time to work on your executive presence. You know it's time. You are meant for more. My name's Elaine and I've helped hundreds of people just like you get more comfortable. More confident and become a truly charismatic speaker so that whenever you stand up to speak, whether it's in front of five people or 5,000 people, lean in anticipation. When you are a charismatic speaker, you have an unfair advantage and people can't even put their fingers on it. So if this resonates with you, if you are ready for more, you know you're meant for more, click the button below. Let's schedule a call. I'd love to chat with you and find out what you're up to, what you're committed to, what you're excited about, and see if there's a way we could possibly partner or work together. And now back to the show. So I love that. I've always I feel like we have so much in common. Okay. So it's our passion. You have the passion. It's our passion that drove our feet, not the technique. And then later the technique came in.'cause then I realized I gotta get some technique if I'm gonna keep doing. Yeah. Absolutely. So you're going from that and then, fast forward, what's the next big, I know there's a million little things, but, oh gosh. Can you get us to, I don't know, the CC factory or when I graduated high school I went over I ended up getting a scholarship to a dance program down at Duke and I went there. Then I left and I went back because I wanted to be in New York and I got my first job at the Playboy Club in Manhattan. That was my, oh my God, paying job. I was 18 years old. I was making$600 a week. It was a fortune. I was rich. And I was going to college again, and I was going to college with no eyelashes and red hair'cause of the boa from Cabaret. The number of cabaret was dying, my hair, and every time we put false eyelashes on, he'd take'em off. So I'd be in school, in the daytime, like with no eyes. So then went from there to going on tour. I auditioned for a band, a top 40 band, and I loved singing. I wanted to be more of a singer and be in the front, and then I worked through that. Then I re fast forward, joined Lisa again and got into more songwriting. She helped teach me how to do songwriting and then I went off and had other partners who then helped me and I got to stand up When I had the recording studio at Quad, I went on tour and I told you that part about going out with CNC Music Factory doing talk shows. I was on. Oh gosh. I was on every day with Joan London. I was on my gosh, party, USA and things were taking off. And then I was on tour. I was early twenties at that point. Early twenties. Okay. But nationally touring and being on tv. On tv. Tv. And then I went to California. I was with two pop groups that one was called Pajama Party, and they had a hit record called Y se. That hit the billboard charts. I think it was top 60 on the pop charts. It was a hit pop record nationally, and I was called in to choreograph that. And when they heard me singing, there was some, one of the singers that something happened, whatever. And then they offered me the job to be in the group. So I toured with them and I also toured with a group called Amaretto, which had a hit record called Clave Rock. And. That's actually on my Instagram page. That cut. And then I got into the solo thing with Sama as the solo artist. Went to California and then I was paralyzed and that's when everything just really messed with my head and yeah. So you're I'm making it, I'm on tv, I'm touring. Woo. And then you're not walking. Yeah. Oof. I crushed. And what happened? What happened was I had to take care of my body. I couldn't move. I was, I remember at one point, I remember at one point I was, when it happened on tour, they put me in a body brace and I was so stubborn, man, Elaine, I was so stupid and stubborn, and I said, no, before I leave, I need to do this one show. And they're like, what? You can't, what are you doing? And I said, put me in the brace. Carry me on stage, put me on a stool, close the curtain, and when the song starts, I'm gonna ask, who wants to dance? Flooded the stage. Nobody saw me sitting there. See, I remember this story when I very first met you. Yeah. Yeah. And then at the end of the song, I opened my jacket and I exposed my brace. So you really improvised. Yeah. And then I realized I can't do this. This is crazy making. I can't, people carry me around. And so I had to heal and go through therapy and walk. I remember two miles an hour on a treadmill and I didn't think I was ever gonna get back at it, but then I did. The body's an incredible machine. If we take care of it, our brain, our spirit, our attitude, and I was my career and my life basically was threatened at that point. And I'm like a whole nother. Being of me showed up in here and I was like, i'm not done yet. Wow. Wow. Okay. So fast forward, so you've done, you've worked on documentaries you've been a producer for major podcasts. You've acted. You've done many things and if you could give a super tip for somebody who wants to be more creative or who wants to get more into film or stand up or whatever, what would you, what are what are a couple of super tips you would tell them? Wow. So where, because of where I'm at today in my life, no one could have told me this when I was 25. So if someone's listening who's 25, maybe you can hear it, but if not, that's okay too. But what I've learned. Is that I cared so much. I wanted so badly, and I, and it was too much. It was for the wrong reasons. I wanted to be loved. I wanted to be seen, I wanted so resonating with this. Yes. And yeah. And so I did everything as you said. Like I went from singer, dancer, actress I moved to Harvard, voiceover. I'll do this. I ended, yeah. Yeah. And then I went back and did Broadway tours and I sang with Streisand. I did that. I did all these things because I wanted to do them. And I'm grateful. I'm super grateful. There was a time when I'm like I was crying with my mom. I don't know who I am. I'm doing all these things. She goes, you're all those things. And I was okay. And it was like, all my friends have a title, singer, dancer, actress, director, them doing all this stuff. That's okay too. Just watch the motive, you know what's behind the want. And today it because I'm more mature emotionally spiritually, all of that. I do what feels good with the good people that I want to do it with, which is really important and. I don't, I'm not here to convince you, which is what was driving me earlier in my early days. I was trying to convince you to hire me as opposed to, oh my gosh, please love me. I need validation. Yeah. As opposed to being okay with who I am and being talented and using my talent to live my life as opposed to pushing it on you. And that's the different, and that's being totally honest. And now it's i'm, who would've known, like I just did this thing on Instagram. I was like, I realize, what's the irony of my life? My first record called Stand Up Opening for an internationally acclaimed hit record and group. On my first TV show out of Philadelphia Dance Party, USA, and here I am fast forward doing standup comedy, opening up for international comedians. One having been from Philly, that's Craig Shoemaker, and now on tour with Mike Marino. So it's like this whole turn of events in full circle with my life. I am so grateful because I get to use those other skills and carry them with me. And still do it. I still have projects that I'm working on and hope to get some more financing to finish, like the documentaries I've done. And yeah. Mother, I'm not done with that. I'm not done with that. But I love it and I love that, anytime I'm speaking in front of 20 year olds, I'm like, this is the decade to make the mistakes, to meander off here, to go backwards, to realize, oh, not doing that, tried that. Not I think you were driven maybe not always by the best motives. I can relate to that. Of like seeking validation or just, I just loved performing so much and. As painful as the rejection could be. I also feel like it gave me such an interesting experience, like running around New York City auditioning in these crazy little offices and some casting directors would hold auditions in their apartment and, just going to these buildings you would never know, normally you would never go to, and it was so fascinating. And getting to see parts of the city you might not have seen. And I love touring because you go to places and sometimes you're like, okay, I never need to come back here. But, you have these really fascinating experiences and I think that's so delicious. And I think that, that, that's what I'm hearing in your story for sure. No, I'm grateful. I'm super grateful. And I just wanna say if there are 20 year olds listening today, or even any young talent, no matter how old you are. Be very careful, be smart. Just use your brains and take care of yourself to, in any business, yeah. You know what I'm gonna, I'm gonna add on to that because some people might be like, be careful. So there are charlatans, like in any industry, and if anyone is ever saying, you have to pay me. To go get you headshot or you have to pay me to get this audition, you should run because that is not how the industry works. And as a woman, I'll never forget this, Frankie Ann. And then we're coming back to you. As I was always running around, open calls, small calls, big calls, and for some reason I brought my boyfriend with me to this one audition. And every, I'm like, thank you. So we get to this and it's this guy's apartment and it's a very creepy scene. And I look on his table and he's got stacks of beautiful young actresses. With their numbers, with their addresses, like stacks and stacks of headshot and resumes. And he's just some producer. And I remember I just got the heebie-jeebies and I remember my boyfriend was like, are they usually like this? And I was like, no. Usually they're at an office or there's other people. So you know, if you ever feel like you are. Spidey, since it's going off, you can always excuse yourself and leave graciously you. If it doesn't feel right at any point, stop, turn around and bring a friend with you, because unfortunately there are. Charlatans and bad people in the industry and there are beautiful people and amazing people like how I got to meet Frankie Ann. So anyway, I just wanted to jump onto that. Frankie Ann, tell us, I know you have some really cool things coming up. Can you tell us about what's, what you're excited about? Yes, I am touring with Mr. Mike Marino. He's an incredibly hysterical comedian. He's internationally known. He is, I knew him. I worked with him a million years ago, so I was like, Mike Marino. Yeah. And he's out of Jersey, my original home state. And I met him through no, not through Craig. I met him actually through another friend. But he's, he knows Craig but anyway, so I've been working with him over the last few years, in and out and last year we did I did the tour with him and I was honored to be able to open up for him on several shows and this year even more. And I'm really grateful for the opportunities. Super grateful.'cause here's the interesting thing about standup comedy, okay? I have sang, danced Act, film, television, Broadway tours, you name it. What do you all do? We rehearse. We learn, we go to rehearsal practice, you warm up, up, we practice, you sweat you come to dance class with 53 layers on, people don't know this. So you come to class and you're all bundled up'cause you're cold. And then as you warm up at the bar, you slowly peel away the layers. But some people are like, what are you doing? Are you stripping? Like I've had, I've been in yoga class and people were like, what are you doing? And I was like, oh, I'm just. Warming up. But a lot of people dunno that. So we get to, we, that's the rehearsal process. That's the learning process, right? So I entered to standup comedy, which was, by the way, the greatest fear I have ever faced in my life. And I say, amen, sister. Like I repelled off an 80 foot mountain cliff in Mexico. Alone with a bunch of strangers who I went to the bathroom with and said, here's my parents' phone number in case the rope breaks, call'em, because I realized, oh, I'm in another country. But my point is. That was nothing compared to the fear I faced within myself doing. When I said I wanna do this, I produced a series called live nude comedy for Showtime back in 2009 or 10. Great comedians and Whitney Cummings and Crystal Leah and you there just so many, oh, that's so great. Talented comedians. And I was like, oh my God, this is so cool. How do they do that? How do they do that? So I went on with my life as directing and producing more then, and then one day I said. Bucket list. First was tango. Learned that next was standup comedy. Yeah. I wanted a tango because I was always dancing and nobody ever wanted to dance with me'cause I was a dancer. I love tango. Follow. So I went to one of those schools and he goes, what do you wanna do? You know how to dance? I said, no, I wanna learn how to follow. Which is very hard, especially if you've been a woman who's had to drive. To allow yourself to be led. Woo. I was a solo dancer. I did Anita, I was Anita on West Side Story. It's like you choreographed it. I just did it. I didn't know how to follow. Anyway, so did that and then standup comedy was next. So I get to this I'm like, okay, how do you write your own material? Who's teaching that? And I went to classes or coaches and they're like, no, don't do that. Do it this way. And I'm like, but how did you get there? They don't always get, you're not gonna be in my pocket every time I'm trying to, write a bit. So fast forward. There, there's no school. There's schools, but there's no school and there's no rehearsal hall. There's open mics, and then there's shows. And so I drill like crazy. I walk miles and miles drilling and drilling and drilling and talking out loud. You say it out loud, I like to say it out loud. Out loud. Out loud. Yeah. And then do you do warmups. Then you go on stage and you, I record it to a and I listen back and I'm brutally honest now with myself. I'm like, I like that joke, but they don't, I think I need to cut it. So that's the difference with, singing, dancing, acting, producing, directing. You get, you can go to school for that. There's really no school. So I had a teacher tell me once, one of the reasons you always wanna record. Is, it's never quite as good as you as it felt, and it's never quite as bad as you thought. Like I remember having this sensation of I just ate it and then listening and going, oh, I did get laughs. I just didn't remember. Or I expected a much bigger laugh. And then I've also had the feeling of ugh. I was so great and then I listened to it and I'm like, you're okay. Do you, is has that been your experience or? One thing I remember I was taught when I was doing theater was if you are in your head, you're not in the moment. If you hear the audience, you're not doing your job. Because being present, and that's the thing about me drilling, it's like to get to the point where I'm not at all thinking about. The bits, the jokes, the words that it's such a natural part of my subconscious that I'm present with the audience. And that's the difference also is that I'm breaking the fourth wall. When you're acting, you're not breaking that wall in, in comedy, you are, you're breaking that wall. You're having a conversation with an audience who's communicating through laughter. Hopefully nobody's heckling through words, but that happens. But the conversation is in that place so that if I'm in my head, which I have been, because I, I'm only doing this, we're human, you human not 30 years like Mike or Craig. When you do it over and over again, it just gets to be more natural, which is what these guys that do it so well make it look like everything is scripted, everything. It is. I, people go, oh, the other day and it's no, that was 20 years ago. Or you Yeah. And it, the goal is to make it feel like these are just coming off instantaneously. Easy for me to say. Yeah. And but it's scripted and crafted and practiced and punched or not, or thrown away. And yeah. I'm Frankie and okay, so you have some shows coming up. Can you tell us, can you tell us if anybody's on the East Coast, where do they go? What do they do? Yes. If you're on the East Coast, I'm gonna be back in New Jersey this week. Providing this airs this week. It's October 4th. We have two shows I'll be opening for Mike Marino at the Roxbury Arts Alliance Theater, Insana, New Jersey. Let me say that again. Ana. SUCC. No, I'm not even gonna try it, Ana. And and then we have a show on the ninth. It's a hope fest. It's it's a benefit where I'll be hosting that with Mike and his brother Mar. Paul Marino, the Paul Marino band will be on that show as well. And then. The big audience at the amazingly historic former Vaudevillian Theater called the Brook Arts Theater. Center Theater Brook Arts Center Theater in Bound Brook, New Jersey is on October 11th at 8:00 PM That's one show that's got nearly almost a thousand seats. It's a big theater, so you can go to mike marino.net for tickets or look at my Instagram, which is Frankie. Ann with an eco productions, don't ask me why I did it that way, but Frankie Ann under productions and all that information's on my Instagram page. Okay. That's great. I'm so excited. And you had such a windy, adventurous journey. Is there any final super tip or words of wisdom that you would like? The listeners to, to take. So something I, I just wrote recently was thinking about not. Not finishing, falling down, trying to stay in that race, but falling down, breaking my back, or having this other detour that I didn't expect. We can't see around corners. I cannot have a crystal ball tell me what my life is gonna look like, no matter how much I think I'm gonna win that race or get that job. If it wasn't for me falling, I would not be who I am today. Resilient, hungry, focused. And that is part of what I accept today, is that I go with the flow. I do the best I can with what I have today and then I have to let go of that outcome and deal with it as it flows. So that's my, ah, you can be a winner if you can accept that is beautiful. That is so beautiful Frankie, and thank you so much for sharing your stories I'm gonna put all the links and dates in the show notes and if you are listening or watching and have somebody who is stuck. In their artistic journey, or they just feel, stop. Please send them this episode and subscribe, rate, and review so that we can keep getting out the word out. My, my mission is to help heal the world. One joke, one video, one story, one other comedian at a time, and I need a whole crew to do it. So thank you so much for watching. Thank you again, Frankie Ann. This was great. Thank you. Okay, everybody. Bye for now. Bye.