I don't remember not dancing. When I realized I was alive and these were my parents, and I could walk and talk, I could dance.

Lap-dancing in Ireland is about harvesting girls in impoverished parts of the world and exploiting them.

The things they did were beyond our scope and anyone's scope since.

I never wanted to be a star, I just wanted to get work.

I grew up in the '50s, a tough time for African Americans. I had friends whose fathers would openly say, 'Just bite your tongu;, don't cause any problems.' My father was not like that. Even in the toughest times racially, if somebody disrespected his family, they were in trouble.

When my brother and me got into performing in the late '40s and early '50s, it was a sensational opportunity to learn from our elders. Every show we played had a dancer, a comic, a juggler, a singer, an acrobat. I came to appreciate virtuosity in all forms of the business.