WEBVTT

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It is the best high I\'ve
ever had in my life.

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It is better than sex, it
is better than anything.

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And the energy that is going back and forth

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is the most glorious, ecstatic,
orgasmic experience ever.

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Flowing feats of flexibility that
few folks can achieve at any age

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let alone at over 50.

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I don\'t ever want to grow up
and live in the real world.

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I hate the real world.

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I have never ever,

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been able to function in
quote, unquote, a real job.

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Never have, never been able to.

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Most of my gigs don\'t pay.

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That one I did last night and
the night before, 5 dollars.

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I had a private party gig about
three weeks ago that paid

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$300 dollars cash. I can\'t count on those.

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That was like Christmas.

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I love long-haired cats.

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I love touch their fur
and I love them hairy.

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New York is the home to Wall Street

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which is the hive of scum and villainy.

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Banksters and crooks literally
destroying the planet

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with their speculative financial scams.

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Then there\'s the good part of New York,

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which is the thriving artistic communities.

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I would like to live the
rest of my life here,

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right here in this apartment.

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You try and move all these books.

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I don\'t wanna.

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I collect basically science
fiction and fantasy.

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They\'re organized randomly,

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except I try to keep books by the
same author next to each other.

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My mind is like a computer database.

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It is all in there, it is all inside here.

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I started out like
millions of teenage girls

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in ballet, jazz and modern dance.

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And I got bored really, really quickly.

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My body just demanded more.

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And so I was performing
these Chinese shows.

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I was pushing my body to the utmost limits

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that any human body could endure.

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And I began to experience
spasms in my spine.

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Most people don\'t even notice

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that it, my spine has a distortion.

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That it is giving me this, this curvature.

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The doctor said you just can\'t
do hand stands any more.

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When I couldn\'t do that
anymore I was retired.

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Oh yeah, I have to forward this.

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I was so miserable. I was so irritable.

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I hated not performing.

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I couldn\'t even go out and
watch other people perform.

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It took me 15 years to realize
that I could reinvent myself.

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Performing, yeah!

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Dance especially!

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Movement, yeah!

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Expressing myself with my body, yes!

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Those are the things that
really, really made me happy.

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Stretching from a galaxy far far away.

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Let\'s give a warm welcome to Amazing Amy.

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Many years training it takes.

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Ruining my voice speaking like this does.

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So, I\'m known as the Amazing Amy

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because thanks to Jedi Yoga training

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I can perform that for you

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at 50 plus years young.

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With torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders,

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a disintegrated disc in my spine,

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a total left hip replacement,

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and brusitis in my left knee,

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to demonstrate the power

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of yoga.

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The way I emerge

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and express myself is
through my performances.

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And that gets me out of myself
and out into the world.

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It\'s the only way I know how
to get people to love me

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basically is to be a performer.

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Because I never felt like my
parents ever really loved me.

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My father had these, used to say
these terrible things like,

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that I was a bloodsucking parasite

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cause I didn\'t have a real job.

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It made me feel so worthless.

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I\'ve had many, many times where
I just wanted to go to sleep

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and never wake up again.

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I was bulimic for over 25 years.

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I managed to get into sucking on

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these things called
Spiru-Tein Protein wafers.

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I swear those things
literally saved my life.

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I keep one of them tucked
in my cheek for hours.

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And it won\'t make me fat.

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And it won\'t make me want to go and purge.

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A lot of recovery programs
try to get you to stop

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being an addictive personality.

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I think that\'s impossible. I really do.

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I never stopped being

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an obsessive, compulsive,
addictive personality.

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What I discovered,

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and it took literally
decades to discover this,

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is you learn how to channel
your addiction into something

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that is not harmful.

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So you can be just as obsessive and

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and just as compulsive

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and just as desperate

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and just as craving

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and just as wanting,

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just want something healthy.

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Like for me it was performing.

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Proudly presents The Amazing Amy

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in Avant Yogarde

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the leading limber edge of contortion.

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I give my audiences everything I have.

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I know how to hide all of my flaws.

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I know how to flirt with my audiences

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and make them love me.

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Oh, you were lovely!

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I love your songs.

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Thank you so much!

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I\'m, like, selling CDs out there.
It\'s crazy.

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That\'s great!

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I have a very near
nonexistent social circle.

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It never seems to evolve to the point where

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I can call them up on the phone

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and just chat because I feel lonely.

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I use performance as a
way of overcoming that.

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It\'s like the vehicle that
I can use to reach people.

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And when our audiences love us,

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it is the best thing in the world.

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It is the best feeling in the world.

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There are many times I wish

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there was someone I could
just turn to and say,

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Hey did you see that? What
do you think of that?

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I just simply don\'t have anyone in my life.

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And you know something?

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I\'m scared out of my wits.

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Cause there\'s nobody to take
care of me anymore, nobody.

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And that\'s very frightening.

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I\'m very frightened about that.