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[0:00] Joe Rosko: Hey, what's going on? Welcome to Built For The Stage.com. This is Joe Roscoe, founder and host of Built For The Stage, Broadway's number one fitness platform with clients on Broadway, clients in the West End, clients in Australia, all over the globe. We are your one-stop shop for all things theater and fitness. Check us out, BuiltForTheStage.com. Special thanks to Broadway Podcast Network for producing our show. All right, let's get on to our special guest. Special guest as always, joining us from the cast of Lion King. Just got to run into our guests at our recent fitness event in New York. It was super fun to see them and then bumped into them on the street. They're a joy. They brought a smile to my face every time I got to say hi. So please welcome to the podcast, Cameron Amandus Jones. Yes! Hey, Cameron.

[1:08] Cameron Amandus Jones: How's it going? How's it going? And the crowd goes wild. Okay, so you've been busy. You just jumped off of teaching a student. Let's just get right into that. Hello, everyone that's listening. Performers just aren't on the stage performing. They're doing anything and everything living the life. So tell us about that.

[1:31] Cameron Amandus Jones: Absolutely. Yeah, I just finished teaching a lesson in my living room. No, I love the voice. The reason why I do what I do is because I love to sing. That's what got me into musical theater as a whole. And so I've always thought that teaching voice would be fun, interesting. And so I've kind of started over the last year. So I had one of my students come today. We did a little lesson this morning. It went well. We made little breakthroughs. That's all you can really ask for. So that was my morning so far.

[2:12] Joe Rosko: Every student's different, but when or how do you see the most breakthroughs happening? What is it that needs to be set within either the atmosphere of the room or in the psyche? What is it that you see from student to student where it's like, when this happens, the breakthroughs come?

[2:32] Cameron Amandus Jones: So I think it's like kind of, I like to take the steps back to be able to figure out like, how did we get where we are? And then like, to understand someone's vernacular on when they think of something as a problem, or the things that they're seeing as issues. Like, what are those things? How do we kind of reframe them into this is an opportunity for growth, but also sometimes, though it may be a problem in this one circumstance, it could also be a skill and a tool in something else. And so finding those breakthroughs, I think it depends on the person, but it's always fun to be able to kind of just take the steps back and go, instead of just thinking of this like performance, this is a practice.

This is our training. This is where we get the opportunity to make a bunch of mistakes, try some weird stuff, and see if we can start taking what we currently have and start shifting it towards what we want it to be. So that I think is always like the fun. It's like a puzzle.

[3:34] Joe Rosko: Nice. How long have you been teaching voice?

[3:39] Cameron Amandus Jones: I've been teaching a few people like friends and like friends of friends for maybe the past, I want to say the past year.

[3:48] Joe Rosko: Okay, so new endeavor. Okay, so tell us, I wanted to get into this because what got you to like, have the, I think it takes courage to start anything, but what got you to finally be like, I want to do this, I'm going to do it. I think a lot of people could find inspiration from this because everyone's sitting on something that they feel passionate about. So yeah, what was it that got you to finally take the step?

[4:14] Cameron Amandus Jones: I first of all, I love when performers and artists take the initiative on the things that they are drawn to. I'm a huge believer in people doing the things that they want to do above and beyond just performing, just this career. Like as a human being and as an individual, when you go out and you live life, you can bring that to your art and you can bring that to your work. And so I know friends who are like, yeah, you know, I've always thought about like maybe DJing a little bit, but like, no, I'm just like focusing on like going to my dance classes and making sure I'm hitting all my auditions and all this stuff. And I'm like, no, do that. Do the things that you like, that really draw you and that inspire you because always nine times out of 10, they will usually make you more well-rounded person, but then also they will feed right back into the art that you love to make.

So with that being said, I, again, I grew up singing. That's what I've done. That's what I do. That's what I love. And any time I have issues, I think about the years and years and years of vocal teachers and like competitions and masterclasses and things that I've done. And I use that experience as tools to be able to kind of help me get where I want to go. If there's a sound I want to try to accomplish, I'm going to fiddle around with it and try to figure it out. But it comes from such a place of play for me that I want for other people. So when I see people go, oh, I can't sing. Oh, I don't have a voice. That's false. And they're like, oh, you know, I can't really accomplish that thing. I could never do that.

That's also false. It's really about figuring out where that person is and then trying to help them get closer to where they want to go. And if I can do a little bit of that, then I've done something that I think is very meaningful to me and hopefully is meaningful to the people who I get to work with.

[6:12] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Okay, cool. So you mentioned you grew up singing. You said before we recorded, I think you said you're from Arizona. Yes?

[6:19] Cameron Amandus Jones: I am from Arizona. Yes.

[6:21] Joe Rosko: Okay. Tell us about life in Arizona when performing came along and also about your name Cameron Amandus Jones. Tell us a little bit about the background on that as well.

[6:32] Cameron Amandus Jones: Okay. So if you look at my driver's license, it says Cameron Jones. When it comes to my name, I wanted to keep it for equity, but there was another Cameron Jones out there. So shout out to you. He's from, I think, New Zealand or something. Go off, King. He already took it for equity by the time I was leaving college. And so I went to my middle name. My middle name is Amand, and it means one who gives and receives love. I didn't want to lose the meaning behind my name, but I also didn't think that Cameron Amand really rolled off the tongue. So I took it back to the Latin root, Amandus, which is the male version of Amanda. And so I was going as Cameron Amandus for a pretty long time, but I really missed the roots of my name.

I'm a Jones boy through and through. And so I think about two years, maybe three years ago, I added Jones back into my equity name because I was like, oh, why don't I just do that? So now it's Cameron Amandus Jones, and I stand with it very proudly.

[7:37] Joe Rosko: There you go. Perfect. So as an Arizona boy, I grew up with a lot of energy. I was a very exuberant child, ADHD. And my mother was trying to figure out what exactly to do with that. So I got into dance classes. That was a place to put energy. But I also started doing, I started singing in the church choir from my grandmother's recommendation. And from there, it was something that she said I had a gift. And it turned into a passion for me. I enjoyed singing in the choir. And then I started taking up voice lessons. I started doing these like musical theater summer camps called Marvelous Broadway Live, where I sang all kinds of rep a lot earlier than I was supposed to, like me singing Empty Chairs and Empty Tables as like a 10 year old.

Always. You know. And then from there, I went to a performing arts middle school high school. It was not talent based to get in. It was lottery based. Shout out Arizona School for the Arts. So like the lottery based, lottery based. So if you picked your number, you were in.

[9:02] Joe Rosko: What was the demand like? Were there a lot of kids left out?

[9:02] Cameron Amandus Jones: The school was small. It was a small charter school. The point of the school was to be able to balance academics with the arts to stimulate all sides of the brain. So we had our academic classes in the morning and our arts class in the evening. My senior graduating class was 54 people.

[9:20] Joe Rosko: Okay.

[9:21] Cameron Amandus Jones: And so—

[9:22] Joe Rosko: So maybe about 200 kids, maybe about 200 kids in the school?

[9:26] Cameron Amandus Jones: It was a middle school, high school. And so sixth grade through 12th, 700 students.

[9:31] Joe Rosko: Oh, got it. Got it. Okay.

[9:33] Cameron Amandus Jones: So small, small. But then, but like we all had our arts classes. We'd all be like, oh, what do you play? Or what do you do? Over my course there, I did seven years of choir, two years of guitar, two years of viola, three or four years of piano and a whole bunch of theater. Got into musical theater in high school. Did show choir and like solo ensemble, regional, all state. And yeah, was deciding on what to do after and ended up deciding musical theater.

[10:07] Joe Rosko: Yeah. And this helped you, I'm sure, with your acceptance to Michigan, yeah?

[10:12] Cameron Amandus Jones: Yeah. Go blue.

[10:15] Joe Rosko: Okay. Yeah. Tell us, we're gonna like inch our way towards the present. So tell us a little bit about, you go to Michigan, anything, I don't know, that you would want to bring up from that. But the main thing that I definitely want to cover is your transition from Michigan to New York City, because I think that a lot of young listeners have this skewed understanding of what it's like to like enter New York City post-college.

[10:33] Cameron Amandus Jones: Sure. Now, in terms of college, I had an amazing time. Going to Michigan for me was lovely. I think most people had a really good experience, but I had both a really wonderful training and also a really wonderful college experience. Like my college experience was fun. I got to do all the things that you would ask for from a college experience. We graduate, we do a showcase in New York. And so I did my showcase. I wasn't planning on even staying for the summer because I had a summer slot gig to go do. I worked at PCLO, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and got my equity card from that show, the shows I did there. And then I came back to the city.

[11:38] Joe Rosko: Sorry to interrupt. What'd you think about Pittsburgh?

[11:43] Cameron Amandus Jones: Pittsburgh was fun, but it is a strange city. It's like a city built... Like the people of the rural community run the city. So the city does not like run like a normal city. It closes down at like six o'clock. So it's not like a normal city, but it's like a city it closes down at like six o'clock. Nothing is open. It's like a ghost town, but downtown. So the theater was downtown and we would have rehearsal or do a show. And then afterwards, we'd be like, well, we don't have options to eat because everything's closed. So if you didn't have groceries and stuff, you were kind of like... It was a problem.

[12:29] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Okay. Sorry to interrupt. So you worked at CLO and then you made your way to New York.

[12:36] Cameron Amandus Jones: Yes. Made my way to New York, showcased. I started auditioning. I got an agent. My first job here was working at a thrift shop actually, Buffalo Exchange, which I had a great time doing. And I worked there for like six months while I was there. I also booked my first off-Broadway show called Spamilton. It was a parody of Hamilton. And yeah, I was doing both for a while. It's kind of double duty because New York City is expensive and an off-Broadway paycheck is not the most lucrative thing. But I was having fun. That was my first swinging experience. To introduce myself, I am predominantly a swing. I've been a swing for most of the jobs that I've

[13:26] Cameron Amandus Jones: Done. And I continue to do so. So, yeah.

[13:33] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Okay, so there was a bit of a grind with the thrift shop job plus doing double duty on off Broadway. Once Spamilton, I guess Spamalot. Yeah, Spamalot's the other side of that, Spamalot and Hamilton. Yeah, yeah, that's the joke. Okay, got it. So after that's over, like another red carpet rolls out to you and you automatically book or what's that transition like after that? So I did Spamilton for a year and four months as a swing. Crazy time. When I finished that, I want to say that was 2018.

[14:20] Joe Rosko: What? Why was it? Why was it a crazy time? I want to I want to zoom in on.

[14:28] Cameron Amandus Jones: Oh, so Spamilton is the hardest job I've ever done. It still is the hardest job I've ever done. Because on top of being a swing and covering five of the seven tracks in the show and constantly being on the drop of a hat regularly, all the tracks that I covered in that show were leads. Most of the tracks didn't really leave the stage except for quick changes. And I had two of the tracks that were of the five that I covered were tracks I was never supposed to touch. They just added them to my contract because they were like, you'll never touch them, but we just need coverage for whatever. I did end up doing both of them at some point or another. There was no sign in sheet for a really long time. So people just showed up whenever there was an individual who would show up 15 minutes before the show started every day and also didn't have a phone only had an iPad with Wi Fi. So you're lying.

[15:37] Joe Rosko: I'm not because I viscerally went on multiple times because of that. Because they'd be like, oh, it's like five minutes before the show and we still haven't heard from them. They were stuck under the in a train under the tunnel, but they couldn't get a hold of anyone because they didn't have a phone or service. So then I ended up doing a show and I would find out last minute. I eventually became the dance captain for the show because of the madness that the choreographer kept changing because people kept forgetting what they were doing. So they would just alter it. I wrote the book down myself. Every time a new cast member joined, they would change all the harmonies for all my parts, but then not give me rehearsal. Basically, the like trial by fire supreme was.

[16:28] Cameron Amandus Jones: Yeah, yeah. Me. I met a bunch of amazing people. I got a work ethic that still stands the test of time. I worked harder than I've ever worked before in my life, and that was Spamilton for me.

[16:43] Joe Rosko: I love that. OK, yeah, I love that. OK, so a year and two months.

[16:48] Cameron Amandus Jones: A year and four.

[16:49] Joe Rosko: A year and four months. And then we go where?

[16:52] Cameron Amandus Jones: Uh, then I basically I was like, I need a break. Right. Yeah. Once we closed. And so the first two months I was chilling, seeing friends. It was great. Then I was auditioning. But like, I was like, OK, but like, where are the callbacks? And then this is what I'm trying to try to get into. I'm looking for that, like, dark grittiness of like, oh, no, what is my life here in the city? Like, yeah, yeah. Let's let's lean into that. Like, it was like, well, was it a fluke? Did I only book a job because it was like specific or like I asked myself then like four months in, I still like like auditioning a decent amount, like no callbacks, really not no traction on most of the auditions that I'm getting.

Then it's like six months and I'm like, OK, we're getting into the summertime, summer stocks happening everywhere, and I still don't really have much of anything. The only thing that I finally got a callback for was this like outside production of Peter and the Starcatcher, which is a show that I've done before that was not paying anything, really, and was like basically going to be us in some egg crates outside during the summer doing this show for children. But I said, you know, at least it's something because it would be nice to do something, anything. They lost the rights to Peter and the Starcatcher and we're like, we're just going to make our own Peter Pan, I guess. And I was like, I had I had been it was red flags everywhere in this whole like all the things, no money.

We were going to be creating our own sets. Essentially, our costumes were going to be our own clothing. Like there was no money involved with this. But I still was like, you know what? At least it's something. At least it's something. At least it's something.

[18:47] Cameron Amandus Jones: I eventually had to find a backbone and go, you know what? I don't think I can do this. So I'm bowing out. So I bowed out of that. I went to a next day appointment for a random show. I got a next day appointment for something. I was like, OK, cool. I went in on a Thursday. I booked it that day and I was in rehearsals on Saturday. It was the show called This Ain't No Disco. It was at the Atlantic here in town. I was replacing someone with Ian Padgett.

[19:29] Joe Rosko: Yes, I saw. I saw the show. Oh, I was there. I was in that. Yeah. Yeah. I saw the show.

[19:36] Cameron Amandus Jones: OK, wait. OK, wait. So if you didn't have the backbone and say like, hey, no thanks, then that would have never happened. Right. Never have happened.

[19:45] Joe Rosko: And that is at the Atlantic Republic, which one?

[19:49] Cameron Amandus Jones: The Atlantic. The Atlantic. All right. We're at the Atlantic. Yeah. This ain't no disco. OK, sorry. Yeah. And extra little tidbit. I want to say that it is really important to trust your intuition in that way because it's not the first time that happened for me, but it was also we'll get to the second time in a second because I think you'll like it. But but yeah, so I listened to my intuition. I said, you know what, I might as well just leave this one alone. Next day appointment, I book it. All of a sudden I'm in a show. I have my own track. I have features in the show. I'm working with an incredible cast and crew. The music is written by the Hedwig writers. Camille Brown is doing the choreography.

Darko Trzciak is directing and he's phenomenal. I'm working with all of these like Broadway people. One of the guys who was in the show was in Once, which was my first Broadway show that I ever saw. And he was in the show like I remember seeing him. And so like all of these things just happened at once. And then as soon as I booked that show, I was going in for auditions and getting final callbacks for all of these other things. It just happened all of a sudden, like all of a sudden I booked another show, a show that was going to happen afterwards. I was going to do a Color Purple. I got in finals for the All Black Oklahoma at Tutts. I like like the things were happening and I was like, I don't know what weird energy shift there was, but I'll take it.

So I'm doing that show. It's going really well. I have I'm still auditioning while I'm doing this show. And I get a cruise line audition and, you know, a cruise line is a long contract. It's a decent amount of money. I was dating a guy at the time and basically. It would have lined up where if I took I did the auditions, they were like, we love you. We want to put you on a boat. And they were like, when are you available? And I was like, instead of saying like immediately, like the second I was available, I was like, there's some time that I want to take for me. I was dating someone at the time. We had already decided to go back to his home home and just do like a little bit of a trip. And so I said in like a few months, not immediately. Right. Also, while I was doing this show and auditioning, I was auditioning for Lion King, which is what I'm in now.

[22:35] Cameron Amandus Jones: This is not the first time I auditioned for Lion King. This is actually the second. The first time was the year prior and I got a decent way through. Nothing ever happened with it. And they didn't really call me back after the two or three callbacks I did. So I was like, oh, I guess they're just not interested. They called me back in again. And while I was doing 10 of 12 week for This Ain't No Disco. So hear me, 10 of 12 week where we have a 10 of 12 every day for a week. On my lunch breaks, I was going and auditioning for Lion King. I would like get to my 10 of 12, get to my lunch break, go sing this stuff for Lion King, come back, finish up the show, finish up the night at 10 p.m., wake up the next morning, do the same thing over and over again.

I did four auditions. So four lunch breaks during a 10 or 12 week to audition for Lion King. And I was delirious. I didn't have time to even think about it. So I just went in there and I'm like, I'm just going to do. I don't care what they think. I'm just going to do. And found out that I booked it when I was about to go on stage for This Ain't No Disco around the time when we found out we might not get extended. So Disney's technically not supposed to do this, but they were like, if your show extends, you're not extending with it. You're ours now. And so I was like, OK. We didn't extend, unfortunately, but it also made things cleaner for me. I went from This Ain't No Disco directly into Lion King rehearsals, six weeks of rehearsals. I'm a singer swing for the show. And from that point on, I have been in the show.

[24:42] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Yeah. And so amazing.

[24:42] Cameron Amandus Jones: Yeah. To sum up that, you know, fun, long little journey in the moments where I could have been like, oh, new contract. Oh, I'm just going to run in and try to do as many things as I could. I've always tried to listen to the things that felt good for me. And I've usually wound up in the places that I needed to be in. I don't know why, but I just kind of showed up, did the best that I could. And that has helped me arrive in some of the greatest and most fulfilling places for me.

[25:21] Joe Rosko: OK, I love it. OK. Yeah. OK. So listen to your intuition out there. OK. So Lion King was what year? When did you when did you join the show?

[25:27] Cameron Amandus Jones: I started in 2018. So 2018 was the year I finished Spambleton. Yeah. Didn't work for a while. That's that Disney life for you. 2018.

[25:33] Joe Rosko: Correct. That's that Disney life. 2018 really was something.

[25:40] Cameron Amandus Jones: Yeah. And then did This Ain't No Disco and then started my time at Lion King. I started Lion King when I was 24. I am now 31, going on 32 this year.

[25:48] Joe Rosko: Such a big part of your life, you know, Lion King.

[25:56] Cameron Amandus Jones: Huge. Very huge. How many memories, good and bad, ups and downs? Yeah, lots and lots of that. So, yeah, that's that's that's kind of how I've been spending my days. I'm a singer swing. I cover eight full tracks in the show. I cover seven partial tracks for the dancers. And then I also cover some extra bits and pieces for my for the female ensemble as well.

[26:25] Joe Rosko: So what's what's one of the differences of being in a Disney show versus another show? Because Disney is like its own beast. You know, they they do things their way, the Disney way. What is that?

[26:31] Cameron Amandus Jones: So first off, they have their own production contract, which I find to be telling. Disney is bigger than the normal production contract, I guess. It also means that they have like specific like rules and things that that cater a little bit.

[26:53] Cameron Amandus Jones: It also ends up feeling a little bit like a 9 to 5, I guess.

[27:24] Joe Rosko: Yeah, I was just gonna say corporate. I was gonna say corporate.

[27:32] Cameron Amandus Jones: It is a kind of a corporate atmosphere.

[27:35] Joe Rosko: Yeah, yeah.

[27:38] Cameron Amandus Jones: Sometimes, as much as a theater can be.

[27:41] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[27:42] Cameron Amandus Jones: So in terms of like things that we can do with the material outside, we have to like get the okays from a bunch of different people.

[27:50] Cameron Amandus Jones: We're a part of Disney Theatricals, but then Disney Theatricals sits underneath Disney at large as a corporation.

[27:59] Cameron Amandus Jones: So it's a large thing.

[28:03] Cameron Amandus Jones: In terms of like my worldview, there's a few perks, not gonna lie.

[28:10] Cameron Amandus Jones: I can go to Disneyland for free.

[28:13] Cameron Amandus Jones: I can go to Disneyland and Disney World for free as long as I have the right dates.

[28:18] Cameron Amandus Jones: I can bring people with me, which...

[28:21] Joe Rosko: Everyone's gonna be DMing you.

[28:23] Cameron Amandus Jones: Everyone's gonna DM you after this episode.

[28:25] Cameron Amandus Jones: They'd be like, hey.

[28:26] Joe Rosko: Well, no, here's the real tea.

[28:29] Cameron Amandus Jones: Love your episode.

[28:31] Cameron Amandus Jones: When are you going to Disney?

[28:33] Cameron Amandus Jones: When are we going to Disneyland?

[28:35] Cameron Amandus Jones: When are we going to Disney?

[28:37] Cameron Amandus Jones: But the question has come up more often than not, even from my own mother, being like, so do you have to be there for us to use that benefit?

[28:44] Cameron Amandus Jones: And I said, wow.

[28:51] Cameron Amandus Jones: From my own mother.

[28:53] Cameron Amandus Jones: You would try to go without me, but you would want to use the benefits that I bring?

[28:59] Cameron Amandus Jones: Okay, got it. Noted.

[29:01] Cameron Amandus Jones: She's like, well, you're working so often.

[29:02] Cameron Amandus Jones: I was just like wondering if like, is there any way that we could go without you?

[29:07] Joe Rosko: Yeah.

[29:08] Cameron Amandus Jones: Got it.

[29:09] Joe Rosko: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hilarious.

[29:11] Joe Rosko: Any highlights from the show you've been in since 2018? Any like big highs where you're like, that was fun. I don't know, a late night show, an early morning show, a parade, or I don't know. Anything that... Tell me.

[29:23] Cameron Amandus Jones: Okay. So I think on like the more logistical highlights, we got to do the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. So I got to be in that. I was in the Rhino. And that was just like a really fun experience. We did the late night as well. And that was interesting to be around for. So like we've gotten to do a bunch of like really fun events. But I think for me personally, I've done a five way split track for the first time ever. I've done some like really crazy shows where I had to like, I don't know, figure it out. Piece together all these different parts of the show, create my own backstage traffic. Because when I piece stuff together, inevitably I'll have to be in different places than I normally would be or crossing at different times and all of that jazz.

So I would now, having navigated through the trauma of them, would call them highlights. Exciting moments. And I've gotten to meet like a bunch of really incredible people. Either people that I've worked with here in the show, but also people who've come to visit. Queen Latifah came like not too long ago.

[30:44] Joe Rosko: Yeah, name a few of your favorites.

[30:47] Cameron Amandus Jones: That was really interesting. Who else came? We just had Kim Kardashian came to the show recently. And Kris Jenner. We had, who else was here recently? And it'll always be random. Like we'll never know until they maybe want to come backstage. Sometimes they don't want to come backstage. I remember when Whoopi Goldberg came again at some point. We had some comedians come through. We just had like random people would randomly be at Lion King every once in a while. Beyonce's mother came. That was really exciting for some people. Yeah, a lot of fun.

[31:36] Joe Rosko: Okay, cool. With being in the show since 2018, do you continue to audition? Do you continue to do other passion projects? What's life like for you when you're in a show consistently for this amount of time?

[31:53] Cameron Amandus Jones: You find your own rhythm. I know that various people approach this contract specifically differently. You have to figure out the things that make it manageable for you, both in like taking care of your body and keeping yourself good. But also like the things that keep your brain good, keep you satisfied, keep you happy and comfortable. That looks like for me, I'm a huge anime nerd. So I watch so much anime either while I'm at the show when I'm not on, in between scenes when I am on, when I'm at home. That's kind of one of my big like solace things for me to be able to stay good. In terms of auditioning and things, yeah, I am still auditioning. You have to make a decision for yourself in this show and with this contract.

Like when, what do you want your life to look like? You know, a lot of people can get lost in the greatness of this. It's like a gilded cage, as we'll say, a beautiful gilded cage. It's an opportunity and it pays well and it's consistent. But then also you have to really continue to check in with what do you ultimately want? And I say this from a place of privilege, because again, a lot of actors and performers do not get the opportunity to be able to stay in something for so long that they now are starting to think about what their options are. As actors, we don't often, we're not often given options. You know, it's usually we take what's the best thing that's in front of us. And so I've been afforded a very special gift to be able to kind of decide what do I want my life to look like? Now, I've had seasons, I've had moments where I've changed my mind. I will be very honest. Like I've thought about like what else do I want to do and where else would I like to be?

[34:01] Joe Rosko: Well, first off, to be absolutely frank, I would like to get to a point in life where not all of the money that I make is not solely based on me utilizing my body constantly. Like it would be nice to have a little bit more balance and find a little bit more of a sustainable situation. That looks different for everyone, of course. So I'm really speaking for me. But I want to get to a point where, you know, I kind of can diversify the life that I live so it's not constantly hustle. So it's not constantly I have to do this in order to have healthy weeks or I have to do this in order to be able to survive and take care of myself. Like I want to actually be able to enjoy life. We have one life. We have one body.

That's kind of what we've got for now. And so I want to be able to get into my 40s, my 50s, my 60s and not be struggling. I want to be in my 40s, 50s, 60s and be able to walk and feel good. I want to be in my 40s, 50s, 60s and still be able to approach life from a place that's exciting and enjoyable without having to, I don't know, constantly grind. Go to physical therapy six times a week. Six times a week and barely be able to lift my neck and be like, well, at least I had a career. For me, that doesn't seem like the most worthwhile thing. Ask anyone else and, you know, get a different answer. But I think I would like to be able to have a wonderful career but not be handicapped by it.

[35:50] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Last question on the physical side and staying built for the stage and we just talked about physical therapy. What other kind of things besides PT do you try to keep in your ritual to keep on top of your game during eight shows a week and all this puppetry and all the things you just kind of talked about?

[36:19] Cameron Amandus Jones: Well, acupuncture. I will say I'm a big, big fan of acupuncture. I think for me, it has been a an amazing way to like reset muscles and kind of get back to a better equilibrium. I think doing shows for a long period of time like this one can sometimes start playing into off balance or just a bit of misalignment and also an unbalancing of your muscles. You start becoming molded to the show you're doing. So for me, Lion King is left heavy. So a lot of my issues are on my left side of my body. And so I need to do work outside to be able to kind of balance that out. Acupuncture has been huge for me. Calisthenics have actually been really great. So a lot of bodywork stuff. I'm going to get back to like lifting weights again, probably soon.

But working on just getting a better foundation has been huge. My knees don't hurt nearly as much. My core is a lot stronger. And so it's helping with the stability of both all the puppets that I have to wear and then also singing while wearing all of those puppets and being in these different strange positions.

[37:46] Joe Rosko: I'm glad you brought up the heavy on the left side comment just because so many people are like, you know, I don't need to train or I don't need to do these certain types of PT because I'm so active on the stage. But you're so active in the same exact way every single day. And those imbalances are going to occur. So thanks for bringing that up. That's that's much needed.

[38:11] Cameron Amandus Jones: No, it's huge. A part of the therapy is rebalancing from the show, like I think for anyone. And that also means if you're a dancer, that means making sure that you have something else that continues to stimulate your body in different ways. If you're a singer, though, as well, you also need to do the same thing. If you are in a pop rock show, you need to work on getting your technique to still be as diverse as it was before you were doing said show. I know some friends of mine who've talked about doing like a pop rock show and then taking two months after leaving the show to get back to a better voice equilibrium. You know, it's a vocal thing, too. Shows will push you in a direction. You have to make sure that you can make your way back to what you is and not always pick up the things that you've you've learned, gotten from the show, but be able to maintain a technique that sits more in how you want to be and be seen and perceived as an artist.

[39:16] Joe Rosko: Yeah. Awesome. Cameron, thanks so much for your time today.

[39:20] Cameron Amandus Jones: No problem. Thank you for having me.

[39:22] Joe Rosko: My pleasure.

[39:24] Joe Rosko: All right. Cameron Amandus Jones from The Lion King. If you want to take voice from a cast member of The Lion King, hit up Cameron. Go to Cameron's Instagram, I.Amandus. It'll be in the description of the episode. Give him a follow. And yeah, always great chatting with him. Real quick, we're going to be doing a 5K April 5th with Broadway Cares. Please check out the link below. You'll get a free shirt says I run the street, the Broadway street sign. We're going to have a fun time. It's on Governor's Island. It's going to raise funds for Broadway Cares, which is always a great thing. So check it out. April 5th. We're running a 5K. All right. Thanks, Cameron. Thanks, Broadway Podcast Network. If you want to try out Built for the Stage, go to BuiltfortheStage.com. Actors are athletes. Train like one. Later.