When Butterscotch plopped down in my dining room, I noticed she was wearing a Tupac shirt, which shot me back to the ‘90s, when everyone was like, “Keep it real.” Remember that? No? That’s because you’re 12-years-old. Well, let me tell you a little something about the old days: They were stupid, and when people said “keep it real,” what they actually meant was, “Look mad as fuck and wear Timberland boots,” which led to entire suburban school districts full of kids who thought they were Tupac. But here’s the thing, not even Tupac was the cartoonish version of Tupac. Tupac Amaru Shakur was a poet, an artist, a dancer, a revolutionary and a thinker. In an interview from 1988, the 17-year-old said, “Ain’t no secret, the world is in bad shape. So we have to do a lot of good things.” It’s a beautiful thing for a teenager to say.

I’m always reminded that the reason people love Tupac isn’t because he wore bandanas and spat at cameras (OK, no, I actually love that shit); people love him because of his complexity, his commitment to intellect, and even his hypocrisy. Tupac was nothing if not authentic. He truly wanted to make the world a better place, and it wasn’t until people got in his way that he tried to destroy them. He was the perfect image of a beautifully imperfect human.

Peace, love, and positivity

That’s why I’m always excited to talk with Antoinette Clinton, known by most as Butterscotch, who seems to be in the midst of some sort of self-awakening, on the brink of becoming not just a musician, but a leader.

Over a glass of water (half full), she speaks candidly about the past several years since she was a finalist on America’s Got Talent, how she’s had to make difficult choices and her recent quest to find an authentic artistic self, a distinct path that will allow her to change the world on her own terms without having to bow to the god of mass appeal. “For 10 years, it’s been, ‘She was on America’s Got Talent!’ and I’m just like, ahhh, I’m more than that!” While she’s kidding, I imagine that kind of thing—being pigeonholed as a one-dimensional reality show character—can really be frustrating, especially since the guitar-and-piano-playing, beatboxing-and-rapping virtuoso has been working hard to gift the world with her grand artistic gestures.

“I fully feel who I am and what I’m supposed to do and my purpose. It’s to inspire and I know that a lot of people have gone through the same things as me and it’s to give motivation and purpose to others and to encourage them to keep going,” she says. “And also just to make them feel good.”

She also understands that in order to make fans happy, she has to be happy, too. “I’m trying to do more things that not only help me grow, but that are fun and that inspire me. I’ve done corporate stuff which pays really well, but it doesn’t feed the soul,” she says.

“I’m trying to do more soul-fulfilling events.”

Narratives

While she’s been out as a gay woman for about 10 years, Butterscotch wasn’t always super open about it. She never hid the fact that she was gay; she simply didn’t talk about it.

“It’s not easy when the majority of the world is judging you and you have to be super comfortable and confident to know that’s who you are,” she says.

She recently performed at SF Pride and will perform at DTLA Proud Festival at the end of August, and her single “Accept Who I Am” marks a sort of turn in her career where she is not simply “out,” she’s claiming her sexuality and drawing a line in the sand in the name of LGBTQ people. The second verse of the song is where shit gets heated: “It’s none of your business if I’ve slept with a woman or a man/ Frankly I don’t give a damn what you think, I’m a freak, what I do in the sheets, doesn’t concern you, I don’t/ understand, why you care so much, why do you people stare so much, why you point and glare so much,/ Like you’re the one to judge/ Living your fucked up life you can’t get enough.”

Damn.

Her latest single “We Are All We Got” is equally as civic-minded, with an attention to human connection and a call to spread your narrative throughout the world, even if that narrative causes discomfort.

“We’re told that we’re ugly because we’re black or we’re told that we’re sinful because we’re gay, and people have committed suicide for these reasons, so we have to celebrate ourselves to appreciate ourselves,” she says. “It’s more important than ever to share our stories.”

The AGT curse

I have a feeling that no matter where she goes, Butterscotch will always be the one from America’s Got Talent, which is why she’s wary about the many offers she’s received to be on other televised talent competition shows. “I’ve been approached several times. I don’t want to be known as that,” she says.

But that doesn’t mean you’ll never see her on TV again. “If it was about music and would focus on my story, then sure,” she says. “The only thing is that people thrive on drama, so it would have to be carefully crafted. But I’m a pretty open person.” Butterscotch pauses. “Well, semi-open,” she says, laughing.

This careful weighing of opportunities (“I’m not that much into astrology, but I’m a Libra. I weigh everything,” she says) is something that’s foreign to someone like me, a garbage human born with zero self-control (I’m a Gemini). If someone offered me a reality show, I’d probably buy some bigass sunglasses, quit my job, move to Los Angeles and never speak to normal people again. But since Butterscotch has a highly functioning brain, she is able to weigh each opportunity with the help of her girlfriend, who asks a simple question: “Would you be proud of it?” It was this question that led Butterscotch to pass on the opportunity to appear on Showtime at the Apollo. If it’s just for exposure, and not contributing to the nourishment of soul, she won’t do it.

Industry rule No. 4,080 …

“It’s a rough industry,” Butterscotch says about showbiz. “Fortunately, I’m pretty good at networking.” This talent has led her to perform at the Hatch conference in Montana, where creative professionals (filmmakers, artists, entrepreneurs, the guy who created Siri, etc.) gathered to listen to each other talk and to trade ideas.

Her knack for networking also led to one of my favorite Butterscotch appearances, her 2016 talk at the Peace of Mind Storytellers event, where she addressed mental health issues and how art helped her overcome some serious shit. “I used to cut my arms all the time. It was a deep and dark time for me,” she said in front of the crowd. She talked about how music saved her life, but also how she had mentors that told her she should stay in the closet, that she “should get a fake boyfriend.” She fell into a deep state of depression and wondered if music was the way. “I wanted to shave my head and move to Spain,” she joked. Her willingness to spread her narrative with grace and humor and to commit her life to assisting others has helped her deal with her own demons.

“In the end, it’s just like, fuck it,” she says, “so you might as well love your life and do what’s best for you.”

It’s exciting to fathom what’s next in Butterscotch’s quest toward self-fulfillment. No doubt she’ll extend her generosity toward youth who need it the most: the depressed, the unsure, the outsiders, the outcasts, the humans who feel like they need a purpose and can’t find one. For these souls, Butterscotch offers a bit of advice: “Find your support system, whether it be a teacher, a friend, a family member, there’s always going to be someone out there who does understand and people that will help, even if it’s me,” she says. “You can reach out to me.”

That’s real.

Catch Butterscotch at the Girls Rock Sacramento Benefit Concert presented by the California Women’s Music Festival on Saturday, Aug. 5, at Ace of Spades, located at 1417 R. St. in Sacramento. General admission tickets for the show, which also features new wave mainstays Missing Persons and an array of local acts, are available in advance for $25 at Cwmusicfest.com or Aceofspadessac.com.

Comedian Sammy Obeid sets a milestone in consecutive nights of stand-up

Sammy Obeid is a workaholic of the highest order. While most people strive to have their weekends off after five long days in the office, this comedian plans to work the stage every single night for 1,000 nights in a row. After a few months of working and realizing that he hasn’t had a day off since Christmas 2010, Obeid asked himself, “Why not just keep it going?”

Submerge caught up with Sammy over the phone on day 804 and the 10th anniversary of his first time stepping up on stage as a comic.

“I reached 100 [days], and I said, ‘You know I can make a full year record out of this and go to 365.’ I did that,” Obeid said. “When I made the 365, I got a Facebook message from my friend who said, ‘Hey man, I heard a comedian once did two years in a row performing every night…’ I said, ‘If I do that, I’m going to do 1,000 days.’”

Obeid has been working so much in the past two years, he considers his afternoon gigs as a “day off” or as he joked on Facebook a day off is a night performing comedy in pajamas. Recently he has cut down the workday by performing one or two sets instead of three or four in one night.

“I’m on my eighth wind right now or something. There was a point earlier when I was getting really burnt out and I kind of just took it easy, rested and regenerated. The last 100 days or so I’ve been resting and trying to get my health back,” he said. “It’s been one heck of a ride that’s for sure. I’m definitely looking forward to the end, but I feel like I have a wind right now. I’m going strong. And I’m so used to this, it’s becoming normal.”

Obeid has not only broken the previous record of performing stand-up comedy for the most consecutive nights on day 731, but he has plans to take it to the next level of performing.

“I needed to set up the margin so nobody else ever beats it. That and 1,000 is a nice round number,” Obeid explained.

Since the comedy bar is set so high, he knows that his final day is going to be a special one and is hoping to catch more attention to the public. In order to document his crazy comedy life correctly, he matches his everyday show with an everyday blog update on his website, Sammyko.com. You can keep track of what city he will be in and the type of challenges he goes through on a daily basis. Aspiring comedians can find helpful tips from a traveling comic, or people interested in what life would be like for a performing comic can find hilarious tales from his everyday life. You can read how he conquered performing on Monday in San Francisco, dealt with a “horny heckler,” how he got called a “genius” by the legendary Louis C.K., and received a compliment from Howard Stern while performing on America’s Got Talent.

“‘Well Sammy, I think you made the right choice.’ The crowd cheers. ‘I really like what you’re doing, and you know me, I love racial comedy. I think you’ve tapped into really something special there,’” Sammy wrote in his blog after day 441, after receiving honest words from Howard Stern.

On top of keeping up his blog and working a show every night, Sammy is being followed by a cameraman throughout his shows to film the comedy marathon.

“The whole time I thought it would be really cool to get a guy to follow me around, and I wouldn’t have to pay anything because I don’t have any money. It turns out I met a guy who’s been waiting to find the perfect project to put himself into,” he said. “We are going to turn it into a full-on movie, and recently I’ve a lot of good financial success, so I can actually pay him now and we can get better equipment. It’s really coming along.”

Originally from Oakland and a UC Berkeley graduate, Obeid first started comedy after one of his college professors suggested he try it out. After bombing the first time on stage, he became discouraged and decided that maybe comedy wasn’t the right career for him. But a few years later he enrolled in a public speaking class and ended up winning one of the national tournaments. After realizing his speaking skill, he decided to brave the stage once more in San Jose for a comedy competition. Although he didn’t get the winning title, he performed very well on stage getting plenty of laughs.

“I found out what I was good at, which was public speaking, math and making people laugh,” he said. “I left college with knowing that’s what I’m good at, which didn’t tell me at all what I should be doing in life [but] that’s how I ended up becoming a comedian.”

He graduated with a 3.9 GPA double major in Business and Mathematics. But Obeid’s education is used every day on stage to come up with jokes that are creative and smart.

“I think about comedy mathematically, jokes are equations in a way. I have a very technical way of looking at things,” explained Obeid. “Everybody has a different comedy style, some people are off the whim, some people are very structured. I have a mathematical intuition when it comes to comedy.”

His natural intuition has paid off, on top of attempting to complete the most consecutive nights of comedy, he as appeared on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, the Food Network, and is a current member of the Coexist Comedy Tour and the Axis of Evil New Generation Tour. He also started his own comedy enterprise with a group of friends called KO Comedy, where they promote and perform shows. Throughout his success he has noticed how much stronger and funnier his set has been.

“The comedic growth that I’ve experienced is pretty immense and (this is a double negative) but you can’t not get good from doing comedy every night. It’s inevitable, it will just happen,” he said. “I’m just amazed of how much more power I feel like I have, how much more control I feel I have over a crowd, and having more material. I would have never thought this was conceivable two years ago.”

The last day of work for Sammy Obeid will be on Sept. 21, 2013, making it officially 1,001 consecutive days of stand-up comedy. Now working on this eighth wind, quitting is not even an option for him but he does look forward to his future day off.

“I don’t even know what I’m going to do yet. But it’s going to involve locking myself in my room or a few days,” joked Obeid.

Sammy Obeid will perform a free show with Mike E. Winfield at Sacramento State’s University Union Ballroom on April 4, 2013. On April 7, Obeid will headline a show at Punch Line in Sacramento. Tickets for the latter are $15.

David Hasselhoff comes to Cache Creek to Retro Rock Your Valentine’s Day

Whether you’re a child of the ’70s and ’80s or a ’90s-born Internet troll, you’ve probably grown up with David Hasselhoff. It’s impossible to understate the footprint The Hoff has left on pop culture, not only in America, but worldwide thanks to his iconic starring roles in shows like Knight Rider and Baywatch. However, his notoriety rose to a different level with the growing influence of the Internet on pop culture and the copious memes and viral videos that populated the World Wide Web.

In the following interview, Hasselhoff tells Submerge about his forthcoming reality show for A&E, the Valentine’s Day gig at Cache Creek and informs us that those who attend shouldn’t be surprised if they hear The Hoff channeling Karen O in his performance. Hofftastic indeed!

Is this your first major tour of the States?
Yeah, I toured the States years ago with my show to the fairs, and it was funny. They’d say, “David Hasselhoff?!” But by the end of the show they’d be up on their feet and storming the stage. My band, who is all from Canada and used to touring Germany, goes, “It’s so weird to see people mobbing you and mobbing your limousine, and they’re actually speaking English.”

Is it weird for you to play shows here when people aren’t as familiar with you performing music as they are in other parts of the world?
Well, we’ll find out. When I was in Vegas doing The Producers, Mel Brooks and I would go out afterward, we’d always walk by a lounge and they’d be like get up and sing, and he’d say, “Go on! Sing!” and the lounge would be packed all of a sudden. It was amazing, so I said, “I have to put a show together.” I think people are just coming to see the Knight Rider live, and I think if we deliver a good show—and I think we’ll deliver a great show. We’re excited about it. We sunk a lot of time, and blood, sweat and tears, and money and trying to figure out where to go. We put together 22 tracks and threw out 10 of them, so we have the best 12 left. It’s going to be the retro-rocking night with the Hoff that you’re never going to forget. And we’ve also got stuff in there that no one’s ever seen. We’ve got Baywatch outtakes, and I’ve got Knight Rider outtakes that no one’s ever seen, and they’re worth the price of admission if you’re a Knight Rider fan.

You talk about Knight Rider and Baywatch, and I grew up on those shows, so that’s what I’ll always associate you with, but there’s a new generation of people who are familiar with you because of your prominence on the Internet—with viral images and Web sites. When that first start popping up, what was your reaction to that?
I thought it was unbelievable how the whole world could be connected to each other by one word called “The Hoff.” It was unreal. I first got wind of it five years ago, when I came home from shooting a movie, and it was like two in the morning, and all of these fans were making up Hoff jokes—David Hasselhoff jokes—to get me to appear at a concert in Ireland called Oxygen. All these students from the universities up there were writing Hasselhoff jokes—and they were funny”¦ I kind of just went with it. When I was selling my book in Europe, they would turn out in legions, dressed up as David Hasselhoff or Michael Knight or Mitch Buchannon, and they were wearing David Hasselhoff T-shirts, so I took pictures of all the T-shirts, and then came back and called my license guy and said, “Follow all the bootleggers! They’re making all the money!” So we put out a line of shirts.

You definitely seemed to embrace it. You even named your book Don’t Hassle the Hoff“¦
Yeah, wherever I go now, it’s not even David Hasselhoff, it’s just The Hoff. I just think it’s funny. I just laugh and think how did this happen? I know how the whole thing started, too, because it started in Australia from secretaries. It became an Internet fun thing from secretaries sending pictures back and forth. They wrote me, “How do you feel about being a sex symbol at 50?”—that was seven years ago—and I went, “What are you talking about?” They wrote about this viral epidemic of secretaries e-mailing each other in Sydney, Australia. But it’s fine. If you take life seriously, you take life seriously and then it becomes serious. You have a serious life, but you really don’t want to have a serious life, you want to have some fun.

Do you have a favorite? I liked the infini-Hoff the best—it was like a perpetual image of you in the black Speedos.
[Laughs] I saw that! That was pretty funny. My favorite one got a million hits in Australia—it was called “Wax On, Wax Hoff,” where you could actually wax my chest. I found myself playing “Wax On, Wax Hoff,” trying to get the hair off my own body”¦ It’s almost as if I have a little box, and at night I put The Hoff to bed in the box. It’s a character—not created by me, but embraced by me.

I guess there’ll be another version of The Hoff coming up soon. You’re going to star in a reality show on A&E later this year. Was that something you’ve always wanted to do?
I never wanted to do a reality show, but I did something with a DJ in the United Kingdom, who came to live with me for two days, and part of the gag was to critique my daughters and let them know what it would take to make it on the radio in Europe. This gentleman was named Scott Mills, and he brought my record—”Jump in My Car”—to No. 3 and No. 1 in Scotland and Ireland, simply by playing it and believing in David Hasselhoff. I did his radio show several times, and we became friends. He went on a personal quest to get it on the charts, and he did. So, when he called and said he had an idea to come over, and I said if he could highlight my daughters, that would be great, and he did. I knew my daughters wanted to be singers since they were 7 years old, and this was their time, so I said, “OK, we’ve got to do this now.” So I put them in the studio, and they both worked really hard and had extensive vocal training, and we put out this song. It really worked well, and he loved it. I went, “Wow, this could work, but we really need to go to America.” Meanwhile, A&E had been calling me and they wanted to do something, and I kept turning them down. Everyone advised me that getting radio airplay and launching a record is almost impossible these days unless you have access to the media, and I went bing! I do. So I called A&E, and went, “What about The Hoffspring, or Hanging With the Hasselhoffs—something about me and my kids,” and they loved the idea. They came out and visited us and came by America’s Got Talent, and they realized that we were a loving, tight-knit family—not like what you see in the tabloids and all that garbage. It’s really about following my daughters’ music career and trying to help them through all the ups and downs, and see what happens.

You mentioned going into the studio with your daughters. Is that a difficult transition to go from being their dad to taking more of a business role?
I’ve been doing it for years with myself. I have a studio in the back. At first, they kind of—well, not rejected me”¦but I put them in the hands of people who are really professionals at this, and that’s what I’m supposed to do. If they’re recording in my studio, and we want to get something done, I’m absolutely hands-on. I coach them as I was coached, and they love it. They don’t know anything about recording yet, and they’re learning what it takes, but it’s very natural for us. They want me to be there.

The show at Cache Creek is a Valentine’s Day show, and before you mentioned a tribute to the Rat Pack, but what sort of music do you plan on performing?
I’m doing “Since I Fell for You,” “Feeling Good” and “What Kind of Fool Am I” as a tribute to Sammy Davis Jr. I’m doing the rock ‘n’ roll—”Jump in My Car.” I’m doing a tribute to all the guys I like: Kenny Loggins, The Rolling Stones, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. I’m doing at tribute to the new stuff I’m listening to a lot, and that’s Enigma, Shiny Toy Guns and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs”¦ I’m just throwing in all the music I like. I’m going to do some of the Broadway songs from the shows I’ve been in.

Since this is going to be in our Valentine’s Day issue, what’s The Hoff’s idea of the perfect Valentine’s Day date?
If you’ve got someone you’re intimate with already, put the flower petals on the bed. Put the chocolate-covered strawberries by the nightstand. Light the candles. Be as romantic as you can and surprise them. It just seems to work every time, and everyone goes away smiling in the end.

Let David Hasselhoff Retro Rock your Valentine’s Day with his performance at Cache Creek on Sunday, Feb. 14. Tickets start at $45 and can be ordered online at Tickets.com or CacheCreek.com; by phone at (800) 225-2277; or in-person at the Cache Creek Casino Resort guest services desk.