Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this February 20th, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Mailoff here.
At 3.30, we're going to welcome in our friend, Terry John, CEO of Year in
No Way of Southwood and Adams counties, looking forward to talk with Terry,
looking forward to talk with some of our favorite people right now.
We have Sally Kisterin from the Executive Director of the Arts Council.
Good to see you, Sally.
Hello.
We have Eric Britton-Ocker with us from the Performing Arts Center.
Always good to see Eric.
Thanks.
Hi again.
And joining us on the phone, Annie I.L.O.
Annie is, of course, going to be playing for us here in Wisconsin.
Rapids very soon as part of Always Olivia.
Oh, we're going to talk about that and looking forward to it.
Annie, thank you so much for joining us.
Hi everybody.
How are you?
We're doing good.
We're doing really good here, Annie.
And thank you again for the time.
Annie, I know how busy you are.
So I don't want to keep you too long.
But I've got questions.
I've got a lot to talk to you about.
I have been doing my homework.
I spent the weekend.
I'm like, oh, I'm going to do some research on Annie here and learn a little bit about her.
I went down a rabbit hole on your career, Annie.
And, man, I think me and your agent, we could sell you really well.
I'm a big fan, big, big fan.
Thank you.
That's great.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
I want to get into what not only this show means to you in the message behind this show
and so much of that.
Before we do, can we get a little bit of your origin story, Annie?
Where are you from?
And how did you get into music?
Yeah, you know, I grew up in a Northwest suburb of Chicago called
Arlington Heights, Illinois.
But I will say that we have many badgers in the family.
So I'm hoping to appeal to many of the Wisconsinites out there.
But yeah, so I grew up in a Northwest suburb.
And when I was seven years old, my dad and mom brought home an album,
having never been mellow of Olivia.
And this was in the days where we had the like huge furniture piece
that had the lift up door that you put your vinyl album on.
And so I just listened over and over and over again.
And for some reason, Olivia's voice captivated me.
I listened to all kinds of music.
I listened to Gladys Knight, Barry Manell, the Bee Gees,
like all the 70s stuff.
And Olivia's voice just captivated me.
And I just became a huge fan at seven and just listened and listened to her voice and her
music, her country stuff, remained a fan, you know, through the 80s, even though physical
was probably my least favorite.
But then Greece of course, and even just some of her more current things, just written from
the place of real gratitude and overcoming what she overcame with cancer, just endeared
me to her all these years.
And so, you know, people who know me know that I'm a huge Olivia fan.
And I ended up becoming a singer part time most of my life.
I have an MBA, you know, had a normal career, you know, lived a normal life.
I'm a mom of two children.
And yet, you know, I've always, always remained in the music scene in Chicago and beyond.
And, you know, in 2017, I saw Olivia at the Genesee Theater in Waukegan.
And I had a feeling that was probably the last time I'd ever see her live.
I knew that she was sick, she'd come out having had cancer for the third time.
And, you know, at this point it was metastatic.
And she sang somewhere over the rainbow and it just really hit me very hard.
And I walked out of there thinking to myself, wow, like her music needs to be heard live for sure.
And at some point I would love to do that.
And it was just a decision I made in my head walking out of that concert.
And I didn't know when or where or how, but, but, you know, here I am.
So that's amazing.
Thank you so much for taking us through that journey with you.
That is really fascinating.
For one, I'm curious, do you think that hearing her voice from such a young age
added to you sounding so much like her?
Or do you think that that just is the way the things worked out?
No, absolutely. I mean, she's definitely the greatest vocal influence in my life.
I mean, there's one other gal, her name is Christy Knuckles, who's another vocal influence.
And I've had others, you know, some R&B people.
But Olivia, by far, is my greatest vocal influence.
And, you know, I have my own voice.
I release some of my own songs and, but, you know, I've done some work,
obviously, knowing that I would come out with this tribute.
I had no idea, and by the way, the timing of this is so ironic and organic.
You know, it's not like I knew that she was going to pass in August of 2022,
but I had launched my tribute in March of 2022.
And at that point, theaters weren't even open.
And we were just doing stuff on YouTube.
And, anyway, ended up, you know, connecting with an agency.
And I've been working a bit on the sound just to be more liltier.
I tend to have a heavy chest voice.
I can belt when I need to.
And I guess growing up Italian, you know, you have to have a bit of a voice in your family.
Yeah, yeah, you do.
Yeah.
But, anyway, I was working a bit on the liltier, softer, you know,
softer, have you never been mellow sort of sounds.
But other than that, I mean, just all of her licks and all of her nuances,
I knew them when I was, you know, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 11 years old.
I should journalistically mention, Annie, that I am not only an Illinois kid,
but I am also from it.
I'm also Italian.
So I'm there's no journalistic integrity with this interview.
And I'm completely biased.
Big fan of you are already one of the, one of the things that I noted about your,
your performance in watching some of the work that you've done and encourage people to go check out
alwayseliviotribute.com, alwayseliviotribute.com is you, you, I feel like I'm getting a tape,
I didn't ever got to see Olivia, John Lieb, but I'm feeling like I'm getting a taste of that,
getting an idea of it.
But I also feel like I see you out there a bit.
And that's, that's something I don't, I've gotten the chance in this job,
thanks to Sally and Eric to talk to a lot of people and to work with a,
a number of artists.
And one of the things that has stood out to me about your work other than
others is I get to see a little bit of both.
I feel like I get to see a little bit of Olivia and I get to meet you a little bit too.
That's a heck of a thing to be able to pull off.
It feels like something on paper you'd write down,
but actually pulling it off in real time is difficult.
How do you do that?
Yeah, well, you know, I, one, I, one thing I know is, you know, I'm not,
I'm not good at a lot of things.
I'm good at singing and I'm not good at a lot of things.
But to know to put a team of people around you that is excellent,
and the things that you're not good at is I think, you know,
the way that you can move forward in something.
And there's a woman by the name of Lisa McClaury,
who if, if you happen to have a chance to look her up,
you absolutely need to get to know her.
She, she does a share tribute.
She's from Chicago.
I knew her as a Chicago musician and vocalist.
But she ended up doing a share tribute that is absolutely astoundingly amazing.
And she, she knows how to look like share, walk like share, talk like share,
all of it.
So she becomes share and she coached me a lot.
And even introduced me to people out in Vegas and,
and introduced me to Olivia Newton John's very own costume designer
when Olivia was in Vegas.
And so my costumes are costumed by Sophia Song and Kevin Bennett,
who actually, you know, put together Olivia's costumes, which is insane.
But so I learned the whole, how do I become Olivia, in some ways,
because my agency said, you know, any are great,
but nobody knows who you are.
They know Olivia.
And so you need to give them Olivia.
And I, I, I resound with that.
I understand that.
And yet, I'm, I knew that I didn't want to fully,
you know, I wanted to give it a pause and say, well, wait a second.
I want them to understand the story a little bit.
So I want to be able to tell about Olivia, you know,
as if I'm telling a story about her, not just being her.
Plus, the Australian accent is a little tricky.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, so what I did was I went into the studio,
and I happened to have kind of a crazy side note.
My nephew, Jack Ayello, is an amazing person in personator.
He was on Jimmy Fallon for it.
But so we have this gift in our family,
I think of being able to impersonate a little bit.
And I think when you, when you have a good ear,
you know how to do that.
So I listened to Olivia's audio book,
and I learned a little bit of her nuances
of how to speak Australian.
I actually even consulted some Aussie friends.
And so what I did was I recorded first person narratives
with video as if I were Olivia.
And so when you're in the show, when you hear those narratives,
it's as if Olivia's speaking.
But then I'll come out and sing a song,
and then I'll talk as me.
So it's me as Annie, a Chicago Northwestern suburban girl,
and I'm telling the story from my heart, which is true,
and it's all authentic and real.
It's like, you know, I named my daughter Sam
after the song Sam, you know.
And so I'll give some of those little nuggets
throughout the show.
We're speaking with Annie Ayello
in part of the always Olivia show that is coming up on Sunday.
Afternoon to a clock, March 10th.
Right here in Wisconsin, it's Rapids at the Performing Arts Center.
Get your tickets right this second at savorthearts.com.
Annie, I just a couple of more quick questions.
I want to keep you too long.
You mentioned early in the interview,
just touching on some highlights of Olivia's long, amazing career.
I think sometimes with pop artists and stars
and people that have been a part of our lives,
it feels like our whole lives.
We, I don't know that we normalize it or anything,
but we kind of like, well, yes, Olivia Newton, John, great artist.
Amazing, you know, and one or two things pop up in your head.
You just, without even really trying,
went down generational stuff, where she's, you know,
for some generations, she is this, she is the greaseless,
she is the star of grease, some it's physical, you know,
it's such an amazing career that she had.
And it not only gives us an opportunity to appreciate that,
but also to take it in, but you as the artist doing this
and trying to pull that off, what can we expect with this show?
How much of Olivia's career can you do you really cover?
Yeah, we cover five decades.
Olivia sold over 100 million albums, 100 million records.
So she's up there with share and some of the greatest,
she had four Grammys.
You know, so she's, she's an incredibly accomplished artist,
but what's even more, and if you, if you watch interviews,
more current interviews of Olivia,
what she'll say is her greatest accomplishment
is not only her daughter, Chloe,
but the establishment of the ONJ Cancer Wellness and Research Center,
which I think separates her from any,
and many great artists out there,
because she was an incredibly benevolent
and beautiful humanitarian.
And so when she had cancer,
she really became an advocate for cancer wellness
and living with cancer in a healthier, holistic way.
And also, you know, she gave her name
to the ONJ Cancer Wellness Center in Melbourne,
but it also provides state-of-the-art research for people.
She believed that she would see a cure for cancer
in our lifetime.
And, you know, I lost a father to cancer.
My dad died at 73.
Many of us have been impacted by this insidious disease.
And so I am very, very much a very passionate about it.
And so what was cool, what's cool about always Olivia,
is that we give a portion of our proceeds.
Every, every ticket goes,
a portion of every ticket goes to benefit ONJ Cancer Wellness.
I want to talk more about that with you in a moment.
I, I be remiss if I did not mention that earlier,
I was asking how long you've done this,
and curious about that timeline in part
because I seen on your website,
you're the 2023 tribute artist of the year.
And you haven't been doing this that long.
It's pretty darn impressive.
Andy, that's pretty impressive right there.
That is really saying something.
There's a lot of great tribute artists out there.
You are the top in that list.
What does that mean to you?
How did that feel?
You've seen something like that and get it hearing that news.
You know, I'm incredibly honored.
And yet, you know, did not do this
for any kind of accolade, honestly.
Like I, I, I'm very honored by it.
And to be in the listing with some of these amazing people
that have been doing this for, you know, a long time
is, is just, I, I could never have written this story.
You're right.
I, I launched this show, believe it or not,
in December of 2022.
And by the end of the year, last year, I was nominated.
So, you know, in one year, we made an incredible amount
of headway.
But, yeah, I mean, I, I'm very proud of the show we've delivered.
And it's, it's really, for me, it's, it's out of the passion
for the music and for the person of Olivia.
It's, it's really just trying to keep her, her legacy alive
and her music alive because so many people, I mean,
what's really cool about Olivia's music is, you know,
believe it or not, my, my, my 17 year old and 18 year old
can say, oh, yeah, I know Olivia and John is,
because of grief, you know, and that movie has,
it just continues to touch generations.
And yet, you know, my mom knows who, who she is.
So, it, it really is a wide span of, of, of generations,
which is so beautiful, right?
I mean, that's, that's what I'm here to do,
is just help her music stay alive, you know?
And, and not only that, but helping others stay alive.
And that may sound dramatic, but I believe it in my heart.
And I think that it's true.
I like you and, and many, many, many people out there
have lost loved ones to this horrible disease.
And any bit of work being done,
I'm bringing attention to it,
I'm raising funds for an awareness.
We back you and support you and appreciate very much.
I'd like to, as we're wrapping up here,
bring in Sally for this last part,
where we can talk a little bit about the charity.
When it comes to working with that organization,
did they reach out to you?
Did you reach out to them?
I reached out to them and, you know,
just because I knew that Olivia had her name to it.
And because I was so passionate,
I mean, my dad died at exactly the same age
as Olivia did.
And so my heart goes out to Chloe,
her daughter, her only daughter.
Because I just know what kind of loss that is.
But, you know, I, what I did,
what I decided to do is, is we partnered,
I partnered, always with a partner
with a local team in Chicago called Soul7.
And, and Owen J. Cancer has,
has teams not only in Melbourne, Australia,
but all over the world.
And it ended up that with the proceeds that I was able to raise,
plus other team members in Chicago,
and the group that was generated from our area,
we were the third highest fundraiser worldwide
for cancer research.
We raised close to 30,000,
which doesn't sound like a lot,
but when you translate that to Australian dollars,
that actually makes a huge impact.
And so, you know, my goal is to be number one,
to be the number one fundraising team in the world
for Owen J. Cancer.
And we've, I've spoken with Coddy Goldsmith,
which is Olivia's niece,
who's out there, you know, locally there,
in Melbourne, Australia,
and is very much the spokesperson of her cancer center now,
and her daughter, Chloe.
So, you know, we've got their support,
and the Owen J. Cancer Center is well aware of what we're doing.
I got invited to go this year,
but I, it's right in the middle of tour seasons.
I can't do it, but anyway.
Maybe next year.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Annie, we greatly appreciate what you're doing,
and not only bringing your skills to this town,
and entertaining us and everything,
but it's certainly the awareness
on what you're doing with that fund.
And we're going to talk with Sally a little bit
about the local effect that that's going to have,
and impact it'll make.
I kept you longer than we usually do with interviews,
but we had to, you're too amazing,
and this cause is too amazing.
So, thank you so much for the time, Annie.
We appreciate you.
I'm my honor, my pleasure.
We'll make sure that you got a great crowd for the show.
We'll see you real soon.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, thank you for the time, Annie.
I'm going to play a little Annie for you here,
and we'll be back with Eric and Sally
to talk a little bit about the upcoming shows
that save for the arts.
She just sounds amazing,
and as good as yet sounded audio wise,
you have to hear it in person, everybody.
Annie, Annie Yellow, coming to town with always Olivia,
that show is going to be the Sunday.
At two on March 10th, be sure to meet us
over at the Performing Arts Center for that.
Sally, this show is fun, it's special,
but it also has an extra tie into it.
And we touched on a little of this with Annie.
Yes, so Annie inspired me with her donations
to the ONJ Cancer Fund.
And I reached out to Aspirus Cancer Center
to see if we couldn't do something
with the Women's Cancer Patient Fund.
So we are donating three dollars
from every ticket sold to the Women's Cancer Patient Fund.
Well, that's amazing, it's fantastic.
It's great to bring these arts to our community,
culture matters, arts matter, and that's all well and good,
but to be able to add this on to it,
that's just above and beyond, and a great idea.
And you also have a donation tab on our website.
If you can't make it to the show
and you want to make a donation,
you can go on our website and take care of it that way.
Mm-hmm.
Always Olivia, the fantastic show
from the 2023 Tribute Artist of the Year.
I'm going to keep mentioning that,
because that's pretty darn cool.
Check out Always Olivia with Annie, Annie Yellow,
coming up again Sunday.
At two o'clock, on March 10th, be sure to be there,
but it's going to be a great show.
Sally was nice enough to give us tickets, giveaways,
be listening on our morning show for that, we'll be doing.
So Sally, Eric, I want to get to how sweet it is,
but before we do, Eric, is there something
that stands out with these next two shows
that you're looking forward to seeing,
or whether it's as a fan, or just as a year role
in the Performing Arts Center?
You know, great question.
I really think that just keeping all of the details
straight with a quick turnaround between these shows
is probably most important.
And so, you know, I'm not necessarily
a huge fan of either James Taylor or Olivia Newton John.
I have to be honest.
So, I probably have to do a little bit of my homework
on the front end.
But essentially, you know, we have to just make sure
that everything's ready to go.
And there's events in between actually how sweet it is
in Olivia Newton John with our musical rehearsal.
So there's going to be a lot of things that I'm focused on
that have really little to do with enjoying the show
and as much as just keeping it all together.
It probably works out.
You're not a diehard fan.
You're going to be busy.
You wouldn't be able to enjoy the shows that much, would it?
I'll tell you what, I'm going to enjoy it.
I really am.
I'm going to eat up every minute of it
and so our student technicians, you know,
we have a big job ahead of us in March
to only be followed by, you know,
our Wisconsin Rapids Children's Theater.
So it marches a huge month.
And so when you ask me a question about,
what am I going to be enjoying?
It's probably just going to bed at night.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Appreciate the work you and that team do, man.
Really, really do.
We really appreciate it.
And especially being able to help these kids
and who knows the careers they're going to have
or whatever field they go in.
The things that they learn with you
in this situations, it's going to take them a long ways.
It's pretty cool what you're doing, man.
Well, you hope so.
And you know, that's the job of educators
to show our youth a potential path
and where that path might lead them you never know.
And there's, it's a spider web.
It can take you any number of directions.
Well, and they are very connected.
Yeah, yeah, nicely done.
Sally, I know you well enough to know you are dying.
You are going to enjoy every aspect
of both of these shows.
You better believe it.
I can't imagine.
Is there a part about Ozzy Olivia
that stands out to you that you're looking
forward seeing or anything?
Because it's a heck of a career to cover.
Well, I have to tell you, I've always
been a huge Olivia fan.
And way back when when physical came out,
I was into aerobics.
I got my hair cut short, leg Olivia,
and wore headbands all the time.
Leg warmers, did you have the leg warmers?
Oh, of course.
You got to have the leg wars together.
So I'm just kind of looking forward to it overall.
Awesome.
We're looking forward to it.
Let's give her a good crowd.
Everybody, again, always Olivia,
2 o'clock, March 10th, Sunday, March 10th
over at the Performing Arts Center.
Wanted to make sure to take some time
to talk about how sweet it is.
We've been actually talking a lot about it
on our morning show and getting people really ready
for this Steve Leslie sounds amazing.
If you are a fan of James Taylor,
you're going to be a big fan of Mr. Leslie as well.
He's a heck of an artist.
Another great one coming to town
and covering another great artist, Sally.
Absolutely.
And Steve Leslie is a Grammy award-winning songwriter.
So we're bringing him in for a songwriting workshop
that morning at 10 o'clock.
So if there are any students out there, homeschools, whatever,
get in touch with the Arts Council.
And we'll bring you in.
He's going to write a song right there.
He's going to ask for ideas, kids will throw out ideas
and he'll write a song.
It's such a cool idea and such a great experience
for these kids.
I can't imagine how great that's going to be for them.
It is going to be a sweet experience.
I had to do it.
I had to.
It's going to be sweet.
It's going to be sweet.
How sweet it is.
We'd be sure to check out Steve Leslie
and all these great shows at the Performing Arts Center
all season long.
Nothing but great shows over there.
Mr. Leslie is coming to town March 7th.
Get your tickets and find a more save of the arts.com.
Sally, let's go over the details of both shows
as we're wrapping up here.
You bet.
Both shows actually cost $44 for the adult tickets.
Student tickets are always $10.
Let's see how sweet it is.
Is 7.30 p.m. Thursday, March 7th.
Show sponsors are a heartle monuments
and a Herman Taylor Funeral home
and MeadWitter Foundation sponsors the outreach.
And then, always Olivia.
We're doing a Sunday afternoon show.
March 10th, the same weekend.
2 p.m.
Yeah, be sure to get your tickets and find them
more at saveofthearts.com.
Saveofthearts.com and be listening to our morning shows.
Sally was nice enough to give us tickets to give away.
We'll be doing so on the morning shows.
Be listening for that.
Eric, get some rest.
Hope the next month goes well for you and your team over there.
And thank you for the time as always.
Thanks.
We'll be just fine.
And Sally, appreciate you.
As always, thanks so much for being here.
Thank you.
And a big shout out again to Annie Aiello.
It was a really nice getting to meet her and have her join us.
That was a really fun time.
Thanks for the connection, Sally.
Appreciate you.
Again, find out more and get your tickets at saveofthearts.com.
We'll come back and we'll have some more fun
on Midday Magazine right here at WFHR.
