Page 47 - ABILITY Magazine -Cedric Yarbrough Issue

Yarbrough: Accidental, on purpose, all of it! They’re really goofy. We played tricks on each other all the time. That was always kind of an innate thing. We were always joking. We were always trying to one-up each other, including my mother. That was kind of just a thing we always had, and I’ve been able to incorporate what I’ve always known into what I love to do.
that’s always been in the back of my head. A lot of times you tell yourself no with things, a lot of times you discourage yourself.
Chet Cooper: Lia actually crazy-glued the couch. She thought that was funny.
Yarbrough: Yeah. I’ve tried not to do that to myself. I mean, I edited myself all the time, but I’ve told myself yes more than no, and with those yeses, I’ve been able to actually have a career.
(laughter)
Martirosyan: Wonderful.
Cooper: —you’re stuck!
Cooper: Do you sing?
Yarbrough: Oh, that’s it? Well, I’m here forever.
Yarbrough: Oh, yeah. I sing. I’ve done a lot of musical theater. A lot of music in different shows. Crazy Ex- Girlfriend is a really great show right now with a lot of music, and I guest-starred last year. They didn’t have a song for me, but I knew they did a lot of music. I was like, “I’m not doing the show and not singing a song.” So I improvised a song, and they put it in the show.
Martirosyan: Is anyone else in your family in enter- tainment?
Yarbrough: No one else has gone into this crazy busi- ness. But I remember my mother telling me a story about when she used to sing, really sing. She grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. One day Barry Gordy from Motown was looking for singers, and she wanted to audition, but she never did.
Martirosyan: Seize the moment.
Martirosyan: Awe!
Yarbrough: I think a lot of actors, especially actors with a theater background, have a musical ear. A lot of actors just want to be musicians anyway, and a lot of musicians want to be actors. I sing, so I dabble in that.
Yarbrough: She never had the courage to really try it. So
Martirosyan: You get in your own way.
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