Stop dancing like that. it looks like you're taking a bath. DARLENE GASPARINI: Yeah. I know. We've been saying, like, in the film. When you have two black people in this film. This is going to be really interesting, I'm sure. Ruthless. The year of the dog or the Year of the Rat, the Year of the Wooden Table, which comes first. DARLENE GASPARINI: Yes. For your information, those are a couple of Chinese zodiac terms that was not really popularized for Western culture till I think at least 1900. [ Laughter ] DARLENE GASPARINI: The year of the Rat, I think it is 1920. I do not remember. RUTH LAUGHEAD: Yeah. DARLENE GASPARINI: But you can be sure that you know every single Asian person who is on this panel will probably know that. It was not really popular in the US at first. RUTH LAUGHEAD: OK. OK. What's the story? DARLENE GASPARINI: So the Rat has always been the year of the Wooden Table. And the year of the Wooden Table's actually kind of an inside joke. It's kind of like those songs, you know, where they all mean something. Where they have a double-meanig. Like, it's really hard for a white person to pick up on that. And if you think you know what the Asian person means, but you don't. The Year of the Wooden Table, it just basically means a wooden table in a very fancy restaurant. So you have a lot of business in the year of the table. So sometimes people would just be like, oh. You know what? A lot of the tables at this club in the end of the year are kind of, you know, tables with some parchment. So they're kind of like wooden tables. We always thought that people just assumed the parchment was really nice and beautiful. And the reason why the year of the table, the tablecloth, it's a table that is really really cheap. So the tables are kind of cheap. But you know, to the people who have really expensive and nice table cloths. They're really poor. They can't afford it. So I thought that the table in the end of the year, the fancy table, is actually a cheap table with the best tablecloth you could have. So that's what's the story behind the Year of the Wooden Table. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: We're gonna see if it's, like, a bad year or good year. We'll see what happens. [ Laughter ] RUTH LAUGHEAD: Yeah. I like it. Yeah. DARLENE GASPARINI: It makes total sense, though. Like, in ancient times, like, let's say, you're talking, like, the ancient Chinese zodiac. Like, you know, people like to eat a lot of meat. They would eat meat off the floor. And then in modern times, like, it's not really something we do anymore. The tablecloth, it's like something else. Like, this is, like, a real new age type of thing. Yeah. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: Yeah. [ Laughter ] DARLENE GASPARINI: We're gonna find out. OK. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: So my background, I spent most of my time in the performing arts. When I was first going into the performing arts, I really enjoyed dancing because I was really involved in athletics. [ Applause ] DARLENE GASPARINI: And I'm a dancer. [ Applause ] DARLENE GASPARINI: I'm a dancer. And I had always felt like people always called themselves dancers. And if you're a dancer, you know, you must be very flexible. [ Laughter ] DARLENE GASPARINI: So I had kind of grown up with a lot of dancers in my family. So it was kind of always, you know. I felt really confident. And I felt kind of shy. I was like oh. You know what I mean? I think because of that. I was always very, I mean, you know, I think because of that, I was always very nervous about starting college, because I have never been to college. I really, I had never heard, you know, first generation college student. Because I went to private schools. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: I had a lot of siblings. And I have like three brothers and two sisters. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: Yeah. So I had already gone to, like, all three types of private schools and a lot of dance schools, where my mom and my dad worked at a lot of -- my parents work at a lot of different schools and also with the Chinese association. So, they had a lot of events and performances. So I would help out. I would dance at the performances with my mom. So I always had a lot of training, like private training as well, that helped me keep up my dance ability. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: And this is also where I learned how to deal with being a minority. Because, you know, in schools. We had a dance team. It was amazing because it was like 40 percent of the kids were black, 40 percent were white. And 40 percent of the kids were Filipino and Filipino-Americans. And I had always felt like the white people and the black people always looked at me. I was like, oh. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: Yeah. And I was like, well, they kind of don't look at me that way, because I'm a dance team member, I'm never the last person. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: Sometimes I would get the flunk out. But, yeah, it was really wonderful. And it was a lot of really talented people. And it was really cool. So that was the part. And I did a lot of stage presence. I did a lot of things that I really enjoyed, and as I kind of got older, I kept performing, and it kept pushing me, you know, to always want to push my own boundaries. So that was the beginning. RUTH LAUGHEAD: DARLENE GASPARINI: And I realized that my parents both really love to perform. Like, they're so funny. Like, they love to go around and perform on cassette tape with their friends. And just so