Kicking It Real

GABBY ROBERTS
  • 4.6 (10)
  • Performing Arts
  • Updated Weekly

I'm Gabby, a former Rockette who heard "no" five times before I ever heard "yes." Kicking It Real started as real conversations with dancers, and somewhere along the way it turned into something bigger: a space for anyone chasing a big, scary dream to actually get celebrated for it. Every guest leaves with something most people never get: a real moment of being seen, no follow-up question, just a chance to take a bow. This is where the highlight reel ends and the honest, in-progress stuff begins. Come for the stories, stay for the "same, me too" moments 🤍

  1. 13h ago

    46. dethroning the industry: finding your authentic voice & defining success with Antonio King

    Antonio King spent a full month convinced one audition was going to define the rest of his career. That is the trap of wanting anything badly enough, the belief that a single yes or no from someone else could actually decide who you are, when it almost never does.A performer working professionally for over a decade, Antonio spent six years chasing his first national tour before landing Jersey Boys, then went on to play Jimmy Early in Dreamgirls at Phoenix Theatre, a performance he calls the proudest of his career despite a hamstring pull and sciatica that cost him two weeks of the run. He is also the voice behind a growing platform built out of what he used to call his shirtless sermons, unscripted Instagram stories that became a real resource for young performers navigating an industry built on comparison.We get into the eight callbacks and eleven sides that pushed him toward a show he ultimately did not book, and the moment two weeks later when he caught himself still spiraling and had to consciously choose to stop.We talk about the term he coined for that choice, dethroning it, and how he uses it to keep opportunities, likes, and other people's timelines from deciding his worth. We also get into his current prayer for freedom from comparison, offense, and distraction, and the small daily habits, gratitude first thing in the morning, skincare as self-care, a genuinely swift block button, that keep him rooted in his own voice.If you have ever put something so high on a pedestal that losing it felt like losing yourself, this one is for you.Stay in the loop with me 🤍Instagram & TikTok: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabbyFind Antonio here 👇🏼Instagram & TikTok: @a.king_32

  2. Aug 12

    45. manifesting her dream Broadway role without losing her love for the art & work with Khori Petinaud

    Khori Petinaud will tell you she almost strangled her dream before she learned how to hold it, and that might be the real thesis of this conversation. Sometimes the difference between wanting something and losing yourself to the wanting is just learning how to hold on a little looser.With Broadway credits spanning Aladdin, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and Bob Fosse's Dancin' (plus a season as an NYC Rockette along the way), Khori is now originating a whole new chapter as one of the Fates in Broadway's Hadestown, a role she manifested and worked toward for seven years before it ever became hers.We get into what those seven years actually looked like, the early non-union hustle where she admits she was gripping the goal too tightly, and how that grip eventually had to loosen without her ever loving the work any less.We talk about the full Rockette season she danced on a torn hamstring without missing a single show, and why she flatly rejects the idea that balance is something achievable at all. And we get into the harder season right before Hadestown, when she felt like she was carrying more than she could bear, and what it took for the people around her to help hold her up.If you have ever loved something so much you were scared that loving it that hard would end up costing you the love itself, this one is for you.Stay in the loop with me 🤍Instagram & TikTok: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabbyFind Khori here👇🏼Instagram: @kmr8787Substack: Khori Michelle Petinaud

  3. Aug 5

    44. 40 years on Broadway and TV since starting dance at 20 & what it taught her about motherhood and resilience with Paula Leggett Chase

    Paula Leggett Chase didn't grow up dreaming of Broadway, and that might be the real thesis of this conversation. Sometimes the skill that changes your whole life is the one you go looking for last, not the one you were handed as a kid. Paula was a voice major at Indiana University, a gymnast with no formal dance training, and didn't take a real ballet class until she moved to New York in her twenties, working her way through scholarship classes at Steps until the room finally saw what she could do. She went on to build a Broadway resume that spans A Chorus Line, Crazy for You, Damn Yankees, Kiss Me Kate, Curtains, and Tootsie, plus television work on 30 Rock and Younger. We get into what it actually felt like to be cast as a trained ballerina in A Chorus Line without the technique to back it up, and the imposter syndrome of faking her way through a role built on years of training she simply didn't have yet. We talk about motherhood inside a business with no guarantees and no family insurance, what it meant to have miscarriages in a dressing room and still show up for eight shows a week, and the advice she'd give her younger self about rejection that has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with fit. And we get into what happens when a woman who spent decades being seen suddenly finds herself invisible in a room full of twenty five year olds, and what she had to prove before that changed. If you have ever started something later than everyone around you and wondered if you already missed your window, this one is for you.Stay in the loop with me 🤍Instagram & TikTok: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabbyFind Paula here👇🏼Instagram: @paulaleggettTikTok: @antiqueshowgirlWebsite: paulaleggettchase.com

  4. Jul 29

    43. how wearing all the hats led to dance captaining her own Broadway debut, her own LaDuca boot & the toll it all took with Lizz Picini

    Lizz Picini is the kind of guest who makes you want to throw out every box anyone has ever tried to put you in. There is a moment in every performance career where wearing every hat you own stops being a flex and starts being the whole job, and what you do with that weight says everything about who you actually are. Lizz has spent hers as a performer, dance captain, swing, and coach, most recently making her Broadway debut in Elf while dance captaining the very show she was still learning in real time, a run that also earned her a LaDuca boot named in her honor. We get into the industry insights she rarely shares publicly, like what it actually felt like to stand up and lead a room full of Tony nominated castmates before she even had her own Broadway credit to her name, and how she learned to stop letting other people's opinions determine her worth, her income, and her health insurance. We talk about the entrepreneurship behind building her own coaching business out of skills she almost didn't think were sellable, the resilience it took to keep performing through a very real relationship with burnout, and the time management it takes to run client consultations and a Broadway show in the same day. But underneath all of it is the toll that wearing every single hat actually took on her, the part she does not usually say out loud. This one is for you if you have ever felt like you needed someone's permission to take up more than one lane at a time, even when it was quietly costing you something to hold them all. Stay in the loop with me 🤍 Instagram & TikTok: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabby Find Lizz here👇🏼 Instagram & TikTok: @lizzpicini

  5. Jul 22

    42. Disney cruise ships, Wicked obsession, and setting boundaries as a performer with Conor DeVoe

    Today I sit down with Conor DeVoe. This conversation is a reminder that walking away from something does not always mean giving up on it, and that protecting yourself is not the same as quitting. He is a Coastal Carolina musical theater grad who built a career across regional theater and Disney Cruise Line, now on his seventh contract across four ships, puppeteering Olaf in Frozen and once covering thirty six different dance and acting tracks in a single production. Together we get into what it actually looks like when a performance career you love starts costing you your body and your sense of self, why he stayed as long as he did before leaving a theater contract seven months early, and how a pandemic hobby turned into a social media following that reminded him why he fell in love with acting and performing in the first place. We unpack boundaries, body image in an industry that rarely names it out loud, and real career advice for anyone building a life in dance or theater on their own terms. If you have ever stayed somewhere that was quietly breaking you because leaving felt like failure, this one is your sign to trust yourself instead.Stay in the loop with me 🤍Instagram & TikTok: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabbyFind Conor here👇🏼Instagram & TikTok: @conordevoe

  6. Jul 15

    41. Pilobolus life, letting go of ego and redefining what success means with Ryan Hayes

    Ryan Hayes didn't take his first dance class until he was twenty years old, and this episode is proof that the timeline you think you're supposed to be on rarely has anything to do with the career you actually end up building. He went from a Spanish major who'd never set foot in a studio to earning a dance degree at Gonzaga, spending two years training at Steps Conservatory in New York, and landing a spot as a company member with Pilobolus, the modern dance company known for pushing performance into territory that barely looks like dance at all. We get into what it was like grinding through auditions for cruises, tours, and regional theater before finding the kind of room that finally felt like home, and how choosing to lean into his niche instead of chasing versatility became the thing that let him stop performing for the industry and start showing up with real authenticity. We talk about the mental health weight of comparison, the quiet timeline anxiety that convinces so many dancers they're already behind, and what it actually took for him to believe he belonged in that Pilobolus audition room the second time around. We also get into life on tour with a company of only six, the unspoken rules that keep that many people sane in close quarters for weeks at a stretch, and the moment he had to rebuild what success even meant once booking the job didn't magically fix the rest of his life. If you have ever felt like you started too late for the thing you actually wanted, this one is for you. Stay in the loop with me 🤍 Find Ryan here👇🏼Instagram: @ryan_hayes39

  7. Jul 8

    40. pivoting from ballet to Broadway and what faith has to do with it with Deanna Cudjoe

    Years before she ever thought she'd actually play her, Deanna Cudjoe performed Cassie's monologue in a college acting class and texted her old teacher the day she booked the real thing. Deanna is the middle of five kids born to Ghanaian immigrant parents, found ballet through a random beginner book she pulled out of her basement at ten years old, trained for eight years at Still Point Ballet, studied at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, toured Europe in West Side Story, and made her Broadway debut in Smash after booking it a full year before rehearsals even started. Now she's stepping into A Chorus Line as her first principal role. We get into the YouTube rabbit hole that basically taught her ballet before she ever set foot in a real studio, an old Anaheim Ballet channel and one Misty Copeland video she watched on repeat as a kid. We talk about what it actually felt like to sit on the Smash news for a year before it started, knowing her life was about to change and not being able to tell anyone yet. We talk about the exact moment she realized a Broadway credit and actually feeling fed by her work were two completely different things. And then we get into her faith, and how she stopped needing a role to tell her who she is. If you've ever built your whole identity around a title only to find out it was never actually the point, this one is for you. Stay in the loop with me 👇🏼🤍Instagram: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabbyTikTok: @potentiallygabby Find Deanna here👇🏼Instagram: @deannacudjoe

  8. Jul 1

    39. stepping back from broadway auditions, redefining identity, and building a nonprofit with Andrew Norlen

    This episode felt like getting a download from someone a few steps further down a road I'm just starting to walk myself. Andrew Norlen is a Boston Conservatory grad who wrote the book that gathered over two hundred Broadway letters during the shutdown, founded a nonprofit working to open the first wellness and community space for performers in Manhattan, and somehow does all of that while serving as associate director across Robert Hartwell's companies, the Broadway Collective and the Unstoppable. He has been chasing a Broadway debut for years, closed a non-union national tour of Kinky Boots, and got the offer for that show five minutes before places on a totally different contract he almost didn't take. We get into why rest still feels like something he has to earn instead of something he's allowed to just take. We talk about the years he spent making decisions based on what other people would think, and what it actually took to stop. We get into the audition he almost gave up on for good, right before it became the best one he'd ever done. And then we talk about the family change that forced him to ask, for maybe the first time, what he actually wants instead of what looks right on paper. If you are in a season of choosing yourself and still feel guilty about it, this one is for you. Stay in the loop with me 👇🏼🤍Instagram: @kickingitrealpod @potentiallygabbyTikTok: @potentiallygabby Find Andrew here👇🏼Instagram: @anorlen @bravingthebusiness

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4.6
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

I'm Gabby, a former Rockette who heard "no" five times before I ever heard "yes." Kicking It Real started as real conversations with dancers, and somewhere along the way it turned into something bigger: a space for anyone chasing a big, scary dream to actually get celebrated for it. Every guest leaves with something most people never get: a real moment of being seen, no follow-up question, just a chance to take a bow. This is where the highlight reel ends and the honest, in-progress stuff begins. Come for the stories, stay for the "same, me too" moments 🤍

Information

  • Creator
    GABBY ROBERTS
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    57
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © GABBY ROBERTS
  • Show Website
    Kicking It Real