Ep. 18: Living In Uptown feat. Ayo Akinokun
Ayo Akinokun is a tech consultant and multifaceted artist living in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood. In this episode we discuss Ayo's global journey from Nigeria to Chicago and his experiences, insights, and love for the eclectic Uptown area. We delve into Ayo's creative pursuits, including acting and singing, and how living in Chicago has influenced his career and personal growth. The episode provides a deep dive into the cultural diversity of Uptown, Ayo’s views on the neighborhood's hidden gems, and his journey across various countries before calling Chicago home.
The Living in Chicago Podcast is where I, Jake Lyons, get to interview all kinds of people about the Chicago neighborhoods they live in, work in, and play in. This way, you can learn about the lifestyle pros and cons of various neighborhoods directly from the people who live there (or maybe even learn something new about your own neighborhood!)
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[00:00:00] Jake: Welcome to living in Chicago, the podcast where I get to interview real Chicagoans about the neighborhoods that they live, work, and play in. My name is Jake Lyons. I am your host. And in this episode, I interview Ayo Akinakone, who is a tech consultant and actor, singer, dancer, artist living in the uptown neighborhood of Chicago, but he has bounced around all over the world.
[00:00:23] Jake: We get into a pretty interesting conversation about all the different places that he's lived and how Chicago compares to places ranging from Houston to Dubai, Paris. Lagos. I mean, it's it's a really interesting very wide ranging conversation that I think I think you guys will really enjoy and get a lot out of.
[00:00:40] Jake: If you are unfamiliar with the Uptown neighborhood, it is a neighborhood of Chicago on the north side between the Edgewater neighborhood and Lakeview along the coast. The east side over by the borders, right on the lake. There's a lot of it's a very, very eclectic area. There's lots of interesting restaurants and [00:01:00] some concert venues.
[00:01:01] Jake: The green mill, the famous green mill is there. There's a lot, a lot of different things that we can get into, but you know, I'm not, I'm not going to step on the toes of the conversation too much. I'm just going to go ahead and introduce you to IO and let him tell you all about the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.
[00:01:17] Jake: Pleased to be joined here today by Ayo Akinokun. He is a tech consultant by day and actor, singer, artist by night and or maybe some just other days that he's not doing his tech consulting. He is originally from Nigeria, but is in a, he's a current resident of the uptown neighborhood of Chicago, and he's bounced around a couple other neighborhoods as well, and a lot of places Before landing here, so excited to get into this conversation and learn about what his experience of Chicago has been like and among other things.
[00:01:47] Jake: Ayo, hey, how's it going?
[00:01:49] Ayo: I'm good. I'm pleased. Thank you for having me.
[00:01:52] Jake: Absolutely, thank you for coming on. Was that was there anything in that intro that I botched or that you would like to add before we get into into anything else?[00:02:00]
[00:02:00] Ayo: No, no, not at all. My full first name is Ayomide, but everyone calls me Ayo. That's including like family. Stuff, so all good. You did.
[00:02:08] Jake: All right, right on. Yeah, so you're in the Uptown neighborhood. What has been your just to keep it just within the, your time frame in Chicago for now, what has been the journey from the time that you got to Chicago to, to where you are now in Uptown?
[00:02:23] Ayo: Yeah. So I actually remember my first night in Chicago the company that brought me to Chicago is not the company that I'm with now, and the company that I first that first brought me to Chicago is very generous with their relocation package. So they gave me like, money for a house hunting trip, they get signed me a realtor they gave me like money for a hotel to stay at, all that kind of stuff.
[00:02:42] Ayo: So. And so I drove to Chicago that those few days, and I stayed at the, I believe it's the Swiss Hotel, like right off Wacker and Lakeshore. And then I went and lived in different neighborhoods. I remember I ended up at Logan Square. And at the time my, my rationale for [00:03:00] picking Logan Square is that I had fallen in love with the idea of living in places that weren't too far from downtown, but were their own separate world and a little bit more calm without being completely dead either.
[00:03:11] Ayo: Right. And so at the time like Logan Square very much fit that. And I lived there for a year and the reason I moved out was not because of Logan Square but it was more so because of my building like I just felt like for what I was paying. I could be enjoying like nicer. And so I did that. I moved to the Uptown area.
[00:03:27] Ayo: I moved to, I moved Uptown and I lived on Broadway. And then after a year there the rent increased and I was like, screw this. Like I'm going to find better rent and blah, blah, blah. And then I look around and I find out that the new rent that they were asking for was the new normal, like around Chicago.
[00:03:44] Ayo: So then my new task became not to like, find lower rent, but to find a place where I would feel like I was getting my money's worth paying that amount. And so I moved to this lovely, like, corner unit with, windows across the whole layout. And it's just very nice and very, very nice. [00:04:00] It feels like it's worth what I'm paying.
[00:04:01] Ayo: So that's, that's my, that's been my journey. And I like Uptown a lot because it's like, similar deal to what I was talking about before. It's not dead, but it's not like crazy either. Then it feels like culturally rich. You have a lot of Africans, a lot of Asians East Asians, some South Asians too. It's very convenient.
[00:04:17] Ayo: Like ev all the things that I would normally need I can find, right? Like the other day I have to go to physical therapy and there was one like sick, a five minute drive away. There's Marianos, there's Whole Foods, there's every kind of grocery store. There's like multiple jucos. My barber is five minutes away.
[00:04:31] Ayo: My doctor is five minutes away. Physical therapy is five minutes away. The CBS is 2 minutes away. So, like, it's just everything is within reach still and I still feel like Chicago. I don't feel like I'm a cast out. Like, the layout is still very much Chicago. I'm 2 streets down from the lake. I get to find nice units that are, moderately expensive, but not as crazy as, like.
[00:04:52] Ayo: West loop and South loops and the river north. So there's a lot of it's a lot of converging some really good qualities.[00:05:00]
[00:05:01] Jake: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I'm just for my role as a real estate agent. I've definitely noticed that over the years where Uptown Uptown seems to be just good, good bang for the buck in terms of like north side neighborhoods that are that are bordering the lake. Because, if you're if you want to be on the lake, you're talking Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Old Town, like Gold Coast, like these are Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:05:20] Jake: These are pricey places, let's know, like know if sans or butts about it, like, but then, yeah, you get up just a little bit more north into uptown and it seems like you get a lot of the same kind of amenities and things, but for some reason it just doesn't doesn't quite have the same reputation, the same cachet, there's just something about it, I don't know, for whatever reason the prices there are just a little lower so, if you're willing to be just like another like half mile north of, of downtown.
[00:05:43] Jake: You can, you can definitely find some pretty good deals in Uptown has been my experience of it.
[00:05:47] Ayo: Hey, look, I'm happy that people stay out. I'm happy. Can you look down on it? And, whatever. I know somebody like had asked me like, Oh, you live uptown? Why? And my Nigerian sarcasm jumped out and I was [00:06:00] just like, well, were you? Did you have rent to pay for me somewhere else? Like, why?
[00:06:04] Jake: Mm hmm.
[00:06:05] Ayo: But that is a thing is like there is a sense in Chicago that people like to be like attached to certain neighborhoods and I'm more just like, I like very nice things, but I'm also pretty pragmatic.
[00:06:16] Ayo: And so usually there's a Beyonce lyric that I always reference because it goes meet and you can, you can be both meet in the middle dance all night. And so my pragmatism and my. Affinity for nice things are constantly meeting in the middle and dancing all night and i'm having Trade off not trade off.
[00:06:32] Ayo: Just like meet that middle and that's how I end up no apartments like this one So yeah,
[00:06:37] Jake: For sure. What have been, so how long have you been in Uptown?
[00:06:41] Ayo: i've been in uptown to Almost two years
[00:06:46] Jake: Okay. Yeah. Solid sample size. So what have you, you mentioned the broad strokes of some of the the local businesses that have been good to you so far, but yeah, is this what, just to expand on that maybe a little bit more, like what are some of the, I don't know, local shops, restaurants [00:07:00] any, anything else like that that you'd want to, yeah, shout out or just mentioned as, places to go.
[00:07:06] Ayo: Yeah, so in this area, they have like good night, like decent Nigerian restaurants. There's one called Iyanze, for example, that I have like frequented a lot. I'm now slowly getting addicted to Stan's Donuts right down the way. I also really like, I forget the name of the theater, but there's a theater right on Broadway that I want that I've been meaning to check out.
[00:07:25] Ayo: And then what I really like about Uptown is there's a bunch of, like, very low stakes, spots that you can just run up into, like, kind of like, bar type places where you get a little bit of food, a little bit of drinks, just very low stakes. You can just get out there. There's Fat Cat right there.
[00:07:39] Ayo: That's a really good example of those kinds of bars. And then. I kept going back to grocery stores because ever since I moved to Chicago, because of the layout of Chicago compared to places like Texas, I no longer want anything to do with grocery shopping for myself. And so I'm always on Instacart, always, and through Instacart, I've been, [00:08:00] I've become a big fan of the Jewel Oscar, there's like 2 in this area, and then there's a Mariano's.
[00:08:05] Ayo: I think. There's also a whole foods like down in the opposite direction. And then I've actually also had a lot of fun, like just socializing and other ways doing like going to like little speakeasies here and there and improv and whatever. And I can't remember the names of those places at the moment.
[00:08:23] Ayo: And I know I know my friends and I like to go to Boystown once in a while. So like, and that's right there without feeling like I'm like in the middle of it. But like, I'm far enough where I can just like, hop in very quickly and easily. So, yeah. I've been enjoying all of those things.
[00:08:39] Jake: Awesome. Yeah, it's great. What was the name again of the Nigerian restaurant you mentioned?
[00:08:44] Ayo: It's called Iyanze. I Y A N Z E. Iyanze. Yeah. Mmm.
[00:08:49] Jake: where is that? I actually did a search for a Nigerian restaurant. I don't remember seeing that one. I remember seeing a couple up in like the Westridge neighborhood.
[00:08:57] Ayo: this one's on Broadway.
[00:08:59] Jake: Okay, [00:09:00] nice. Yeah. So is that along with, because yeah, you mentioned the African community there. Like I've definitely, it's hard not to notice like all the kind of like the the African braiding salons and things like that that are up and down Broadway. So is it just kind of like tucked in, tucked in there somewhere,
[00:09:13] Ayo: yes. Yes. It's on Bro It's closer to like, Broadway and Wilson.
[00:09:19] Jake: Okay,
[00:09:20] Ayo: That's the block that it's around. Yeah.
[00:09:23] Jake: I'm always, I don't know if, I don't know how much insight you exactly have into this if if this ends up being dumb, I can just take this out, but I'm always interested to know, like, how, how, how specific cultures just, like, pick seemingly random places to, to, To be together, what, what do you, what do you think it is about, about uptown that has gathered all these different, all kinds of people,
[00:09:44] Ayo: yeah. So I think before honing in on Uptown, I will say in general as somebody who is not American and who has lived in different countries, there's always like an automatic there's like an automatic need that people have when they're in a country that's not theirs [00:10:00] to find that community one way or the other.
[00:10:02] Ayo: And to have that, that familiarity, the food and the culture and the music and the humor, the sense of humor and like the, even churches like that. So there's always like, It always happens where whatever culture it is, we'll find a way to coagulate and like, make their presence known in a way.
[00:10:23] Ayo: And then in terms of picking the place, I'm actually very curious about that too, right, because In America as a whole, Nigerians always, it's an inside joke with Nigerians now, Nigerians love Houston. Like when I, if you go to Houston, there are Nigerians everywhere. It's enough to where like, I, I, I, because my family friend's dad is a pastor, aside from his other work, and he has a really big church.
[00:10:48] Ayo: There are enough Nigerians that there are multiple big churches that are all Nigerians. And it's just so interesting to me. I think maybe people just pick places that feel like. Similar in terms of [00:11:00] layout and climate which is probably not the case for Chicago, the climate wise, but I would think there's this thing where, like, it just feels as if neighborhoods that are not quite like the center of the downtown, but are away.
[00:11:12] Ayo: Like, I've noticed moving from country to country those neighborhoods, which is what uptown is for some reason. The minority cultures like seem to go to those places. It seems to feel like a place that is not yet overwhelmed with the culture of the center of the city to where there's half of a blank canvas for other cultures to like, do their own thing and make their own businesses.
[00:11:35] Ayo: And like, and then it's probably word of mouth, right? Because if you have, if you yourself are Vietnamese and you have a Vietnamese friend who lives in Chicago, they're like, Oh, I live uptown. There are a lot of Vietnamese restaurants. You will move there. And then your friend will move there. And then before you know it, people will start to to be like, oh, there's a lot of Vietnamese people uptown.
[00:11:53] Ayo: So that other Vietnamese people will move there too. So it's like a snake eating its own tail kind of thing. Yeah. That's, that's my [00:12:00] perspective at least. Yeah.
[00:12:02] Jake: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Shout out to Asia and Argyle. That's an awesome area as well. Yeah. I figured that's the answer, but I don't know. I just wanted to explore that a little bit. And it seems like you've had quite a journey to get here in your your fun facts says you've you and your family, what five, five countries and a minimum of 20 plus houses.
[00:12:22] Jake: That sounds just like, just crazy. So what, what has that been like, what, what are the countries and go into that a little bit?
[00:12:30] Ayo: Yeah, so. The reason we even know how many houses we've lived in is because my mom and I sat down one day in our house here in Texas, in America here, but in Texas. And we were just like, how many, like, we're trying to count how many times we'd moved into a new house or condo, mostly house. And we started counting and I think we got to like 21 or something.
[00:12:51] Ayo: And then in terms of country, so my dad works in oil and gas. And my mom has always had a more flexible career to where [00:13:00] she's been able to work from wherever he happened to be. And we just happened to have a family where whenever he moved, we all moved. And that just was always the case.
[00:13:07] Jake: The the Houston connection a little bit there,
[00:13:09] Ayo: Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say with the oil and gas when I start to list out the countries, they will all make sense.
[00:13:13] Ayo: I promise. But I was born in Nigeria. I'll like go through it chronologically really quick before we go deeper. So I was born in Nigeria and then very briefly after we moved to Norway. And then I spent my, baby years and my toddler years in Norway, and then my, the brother right after me was born in Norway, and then we all moved out of Norway.
[00:13:33] Ayo: My dad was in Algeria, and then we as a family moved to Nigeria, and then my brother number three was born. And then, at some point, when I was around eight years old, we moved to Houston, Texas, and we lived there for a That was one of the shorter ones. Like it was like barely a year. And then we moved back to Nigeria and then we moved to a different city in Nigeria, which was like a whole other world.
[00:13:56] Ayo: We moved to Lagos. And so we had a long stint in [00:14:00] Lagos, we lived in different houses. We went to a lot of different schools and boarding schools and all this stuff there. And then when I was.
[00:14:06] Jake: big city, right?
[00:14:08] Ayo: Yes, yes, pretty major. Lagos is very much New York vibes in layout. The layout is not New York at all. But the vibe, Lagos is very hustling and bustling, very like social, very network based and very like party city, very, People want to be seen.
[00:14:24] Ayo: So it's also where you, there's also Lagos fashion week. So it's all that kind of stuff. But anyway, so like we were in Lagos for a while and, it was a nice, it's a nice, if you're going to, if you're Nigerian, it's a nice place in Nigeria to be. And then by the time I was turning 15, I was, so my brothers and I were all going to get married.
[00:14:39] Ayo: So, the British international school in Lagos, Lagos is broken up. It's mostly talked about in terms of the mainland and the island, right? The island is like, it's actually, I think there's some colonial stuff there because it's called Victoria Island. And so. Yeah. And so, well, part of it is called Victoria Island.
[00:14:59] Ayo: And then, [00:15:00] everything else. And so, on the island, there's a lot of fancy things. And so on the island, there was the British International School, and my brothers and I went to the British International School. And as I was finishing up, Like, because if you're looking at it year to year, the British system, the years before they go to college are shorter than the American high school experience or middle school plus high school experience.
[00:15:22] Ayo: And so there's like a little bit of a gap in between because British people typically do what they call a levels. Which is like a couple more senior years of like a specific program before they go into university and because I knew I was going to an American University, most likely, I went to do IB instead international baccalaureate and my dad was going to be on assignment in Dubai.
[00:15:43] Ayo: So I took that as an, as a route to go and do IB in a, in this like very big Harry Potter like school in Dubai. And then I think I only did a year there before the rest of my family moved as well to Dubai. So then we were living in Dubai for quite a while. I spent a [00:16:00] lot of my teenage years, my like mischievous years there.
[00:16:03] Ayo: And then while we were in Dubai, I got into college and I went off to college. And then somewhere in my sophomore year of college, my family moved to Paris and then. They were there like almost two years and then they moved back to Dubai and then they were in Dubai for a while. And then in junior year, like, or something like that, at some point in my, when I was about to finish college, my family was ended up moving to Houston, Texas, all the way from Dubai, and then bought a house, bought cars and all this stuff.
[00:16:35] Ayo: And then my dad, his, my dad's job was taking him to Dubai yet again. But for the very first time in the history of all our moving. My mom was just like, shout out to you, and so he was flying back and my dad was flying back and forth between Dubai and Houston, because they had set a lot of roots in Houston and like I said before Nigerians love Houston so we had a lot of extended family, family, friends, huge network of support for my mom and she didn't feel like risking that [00:17:00] and like moving.
[00:17:00] Ayo: Because she knew that they were like, they were going to move him again soon. It turns out they made the right choice because while my dad was flying back and forth between Dubai and Houston, he bought a house out in Dubai. We got to go and visit Dubai again. It was good for that reason. But then they brought him back to Houston, like in 2021 or 2022 or something like that.
[00:17:18] Ayo: And so if we had sold all our houses yet again, sold all the cars and sold everything. And somewhere in there, we had, we got a baby brother who's way younger than the rest of us. He was born, like, Like, I was 13 when he was born, so he's like way younger than the rest of us, and so the tumultuousness of how much we were moving.
[00:17:37] Ayo: affected him in a different way than it would affect us. Because we did a lot of moving, but the constant, the high concentration of moving for us happened in our teenage years. Whereas for him, he was six and he had already been to like four different schools. So I think that's part of that part of that partly influenced why my parents decided to have my dad be back and forth when they moved him a third time to Dubai.
[00:17:58] Ayo: But now everyone's in Houston, [00:18:00] that's the home base. And it's Like, for the rest of his career trajectory, he will mostly only be in the U. S. And so, and now, my baby brother, who I mentioned is way younger than the rest of us. He's at home. Brother number 3 is in Dallas. He lives and works there.
[00:18:16] Ayo: Brother number 2 recently moved to Austin. He lives and works there. And so I'm the only one that's, like, non Texas, which is fine. I like having my
[00:18:25] Jake: Yeah, the weird Midwestern sibling. Yeah.
[00:18:28] Ayo: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so. It's been good. Lagos.
[00:18:32] Jake: Time for the real estate stats corner presented by me, Jake Lyons, real estate advisor here in the Chicago area with at properties and Christie's international and my website, the Chicago home source. com. In this segment, I am going to share three statistics that I think give you at least a pretty good idea of what's going on with the real estate market in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, because after all, what is real estate?
[00:18:56] Jake: Really is a neighborhood without real estate. So let's go ahead and [00:19:00] get into it. The three stats I'm going to give you are the median sales price as of the most recent data that I have right now, which right now is March of 2024. So if you're listening to this any later than that, which you probably are, odds are, uh, you know, take that into consideration is probably a little bit different, but as far as the snapshot right here, the median sales price for two bed condos.
[00:19:22] Jake: In the uptown neighborhood right now is 345, 000. So 50 percent sold for more 50 percent sold for less. That is the median sales price for a two bed condo in the uptown neighborhood of Chicago. The median sales price for a house, a actual single family detached house of at least three bedrooms is 1, 065, 500.
[00:19:50] Jake: Dollars. And the median rent price for a two bed apartment. in the Uptown neighborhood is [00:20:00] 2, 350 per month. So, there you have it. That's a little snapshot of what people are willing to, what the, what exactly the, the median, you know, uh, people in the, right in the smack dab in the middle are willing to pay to live in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.
[00:20:17] Jake: If you have any other questions or want to explore what is on the market right now in Uptown or in any neighborhood in the Chicagoland area for that matter, go ahead and reach out or go to thechicagohomesource. com, which there is going to be a link in the show notes.
[00:20:35] Jake: thanks. Yeah. Thanks for getting into like the chronology of your life story. But that's fascinating. And that's so many, that's such an interesting cross section of, of very different. Places, especially, the Dubai kind of throwing a wrench and like, that's just such a different cultural experience.
[00:20:50] Jake: I would imagine I've never been, I would love to go, but yeah. So basically within your, within the years that you would actually remember things, so basically you're talking Legos, [00:21:00] Paris Dubai, Houston, Chicago, obviously. And yeah, so what, how would you say Chicago compares it just in your experience of living in all these different places?
[00:21:12] Ayo: Ironically, I actually do have memories of Norway, because, my family always jokes that I have, like, elephant memory, but so do they, like we all do. But I remember Norway, but what I would say from living in all these places is that Chicago, it actually, it rises up. It, like, meets the, like, worldwide standard of, like, huge city, major city, lots going on.
[00:21:30] Ayo: The main difference is Chicago, when I compare Chicago to all these other places, is there's, like, an overwhelming American ness. to Chicago compared to these other places, right? These other places feel very worldly and international and like just very, very, very specific in the way that they come across.
[00:21:52] Ayo: Chicago feels very American. It's very open and friendly and warm and very like consumerist and [00:22:00] very status conscious. And very big, because like, for a city that's set up like this, there's a lot of space. Like, usually cities that are set up like this don't always, don't also manage to have space, and Chicago gets away with having both.
[00:22:14] Ayo: I think the other thing that's very American about Chicago, even though Chicago is unique in America in this way, is that Chicago has a lot of aspects. Like, it has a lot of that, like, it has a lot of things that usually would be a defining trait of a city. So it's late. It's late up like New York, but it also has space.
[00:22:32] Ayo: It's a city like this, but it also has a shoreline, big shoreline, many beaches, and it also has a sports team and has like, all these big stadiums and arenas and like, so it has all the. Components of what you would want, like, a good, a decent sized metropolitan city to have, and it like, puts them all in one.
[00:22:50] Ayo: And like, I just love, I always joke to my friends, like, I'm like, we're a big, you're a big deal when you have, like, 2 airports, like, 2 or 3. So stuff like, like, Chicago [00:23:00] is very much like, I'm here, I'm a big city. I want you to know that I'm a big city and all these other places are very, like.
[00:23:06] Ayo: Posh, very posh and European Dubai, for example, is extremely international because Dubai is like Dubai and the United Arab Emirates. They're very young regions. Like, they used to be sad, like, not too long ago.
[00:23:20] Jake: Right.
[00:23:20] Ayo: And so, with Dubai specifically, they, for some reason, it seems as if they can't really afford to be as strict on the religious rules and stuff as other, what are called Emirates, because Dubai relies so heavily on international tourism.
[00:23:37] Ayo: But it feels like they actually over time had to be a little bit lenient. And only a small proportion of the people I interacted with while I was there in school and everywhere else were actually Emirati, which is like people who are indigenous to that area. Everyone else was just like, not from there.
[00:23:50] Ayo: And it's like crazy, stark difference. Like I got to boarding school in Dubai and my roommate is half Russian, half Indian, but my, [00:24:00] my roommate across the hall is Scottish. Some of my closest friends are Pakistani. I have friends from Mozambique, you go two floors down to the junior floor and there's a lot of people from Kazakhstan.
[00:24:12] Ayo: You have people from Nepal, you have people from Bangladesh the house masters and like the people who are, the boys, the boys dorm. And boarding school, they're all like British. So again, then there's Canadians and Americans and Welsh, and it's so much, so much going, yeah.
[00:24:33] Jake: a great enriching experience that must have been though to have to have this constant, access to that, to learning from that many different types of people and different cultures and things. So yeah, you made me a little nervous when you, when you described your time in Dubai as your, as your mis, your mischievous years.
[00:24:48] Jake: And I was just like, Oh man, I
[00:24:50] Ayo: No,
[00:24:50] Jake: into too much mischief there now, but Yeah.
[00:24:57] Ayo: when I was a teenager, like in America, in [00:25:00] America, there was a very like, decade defining TV show known as Gossip Girl. I don't know if you were ever aware of it, but Gossip Girl was this TV show about like, it was based in New York and it was about this Gossip Girl was this blog.
[00:25:12] Ayo: And so the voice of Gossip Girl would be narrating the episodes. And the idea of Gossip Girl is that because it was crowdsourced, like crowdsourced, Gossip Girl was always aware of what everyone was doing. And so Gossip Girl was always like, catching people and like posting about people and posting what they were doing and posting evidence because people would text into Gossip Girl or send stuff into Gossip Girl.
[00:25:31] Ayo: So it was like a self fulfilling process, prophecy, and the kids in Gossip Girl were all like, very rich. They lived on the Upper East Side. They came from old money, but like lots of money and they were. Even though they were like late high school kids, they were always in limos and always at events and parties and they were always getting into things like that.
[00:25:48] Ayo: And I don't know if Blake Lively, Ryan Reynolds wife. That was her, she's, she had been in stuff before that, but Gossip Girl was her like cult classic, big breakout. And she's very, she was well, very well cast in the [00:26:00] role of Serena Vanderwoodson, that was her character's name. Because the charm of Serena Vanderwoodson was supposed to be like, You, she was hated by other girls because she didn't, she didn't seem like she tried, right?
[00:26:10] Ayo: She, and that, and Blake Lively embodies that, Blake Sirita Vandewitz, it just looks so hair tussled and like long blonde hair. She still has money and is chic, but she looks a little more like, edgy in her dress style, and she's more experimental. And, Blake Lively embodies that very like California.
[00:26:26] Ayo: I just got out of bed, but I look great. Like, I used to just joke around that if you're watching the show and you saw scenes of Blake Lively, like, hailing a cab, like, just that alone looked like a Dolce and Gabbana, like, 15 second ad or something. And so that's the show, that's the kind of show that it was, and people would always talk about it and say it was a very heightened reality because like, kids aren't living like this, right?
[00:26:47] Ayo: But then I lived in Dubai, right? And I was like, well, I could, I know that that exists. I know that that world exists because, Dubai is just so elevated is the word I keep using because like, even the people in [00:27:00] Dubai who are. Not average, but like the norm are very well off. Right?
[00:27:06] Ayo: So, like, I remember just like looking around and for example, like, the Porsche SUVs back in time, they were very new. Right? So those Porsche SUVs were like commonplace. They were like the mom car that people would drive. And so that lets you know what the. Bell curve looked like in Dubai. I had lots of like, everyone I knew was like rich in very different ways.
[00:27:29] Ayo: Their parents were either expats who did oil and gas or you had like kids who are local to Dubai and like, we're literally in royal families and like, so It was like that. So when I say mischief, it was just like I was in boarding school. I was in Dubai and it was just like I got that was I had been in boarding school before, but this was the closest to college kind of model where it was like freedom to like, get around and go to parties and like go to my classmates parties and not, not really be under my parents [00:28:00] supervision.
[00:28:00] Jake: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:28:01] Ayo: get like crazy and illegal, but I definitely, that was where I learned how to decide for my own self, how I was going to toe the line between like having fun and like remaining within my wits, like, so that was a very long, but
[00:28:20] Jake: No, that's great. No, I loved it. That's good. All right. So in a span of about two seconds, we're going to travel back across halfway across the world, back to the neighborhood of Uptown what but yeah, thank you for all those stories. Those are great. What, how would you say that living in Uptown specifically or Chicago in general has influenced sort of your personal and creative endeavors?
[00:28:41] Jake: It's getting, into maybe like some of your music and acting whatever else you want to explore there.
[00:28:46] Ayo: it's been very interesting because when I was moving to Chicago, I knew that I didn't want to move to LA quite yet and people always it's LA feels like an inevitable thing for people who you don't want to be an acting. I wanted to stick with the Chicago's in the Atlantis of the world because [00:29:00] it felt like I would, I would be able to pursue acting and all the creative stuff without.
[00:29:04] Ayo: Committing to a full on like LA type experience. I didn't, I don't want that, right? At least not yet. And I, I knew that I was going to be quote unquote elevating in a way. And so I was really glad that within a brief time of moving here, I got signed by an agent because that was such a big deal. Again, I didn't go to school for acting.
[00:29:19] Ayo: And so whenever little things would happen that felt real, like getting an agent feels real, like that's an industry practice. Who comes to a showcase and sees your work and sees your acting and is like, you know what, yeah, you're good. And they're saying that from the perspective of someone who is in the industry.
[00:29:34] Ayo: So those are the types of experiences that Chicago allowed me to have. Being a few miles away from Second City that produced so many, like, great comedic actors like the Tina Fey's and Amy Poehler's and all those kind of people the improv scene, the theater scene and then, ever since the strike ended, I've done like four auditions already in the space of like a few weeks.
[00:29:52] Jake: Mhm. Mhm. Mhm.
[00:29:54] Ayo: of that comes, that, I've gotten the opportunity to be, I've auditioned for that show called The Shy. I've [00:30:00] auditioned for Chicago PD, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, all multiple times I've auditioned for, I'm now getting closer to those workshops for like Power and The Bear and those types of shows.
[00:30:11] Ayo: And so there, there's like a There's a closeness to that kind of stuff, that kind of pipeline that Chicago affords me. And there is like a big network of creatives that I can also tap into, which is one of my goals for the year. To tap into that more. And then, as far as like, singing, I know that, One of the things that happened with acting is that it like inadvertently forced me to like pull out all my dust off all my old like side skills that I'd forgotten about like singing and dancing and all this kind of stuff because with acting you want to develop all your other talents as much as possible because it makes you more castable the more you the more random shit you can do.
[00:30:53] Ayo: And so I was inspired by how quickly my acting took off when I was taking it quote unquote seriously by taking classes and, [00:31:00] doing, doing the workshops and all this kind of stuff. So I was like, you know what, let me, focus on singing a little bit. And so I went from just singing casually around to like singing and doing like going to the studios and doing like actual covers and stuff like that.
[00:31:13] Ayo: So I, even though I am taking my singing seriously right now, it feels very supplemental to my acting. It feels like I'm an actor who's Instead of a singer who acts. The beauty of a place like Chicago is when I was delving into the world of recording, like, real, like, covers, like, song covers, I would, like, look up, like, recording studios around, and, like, 15 would pop up within, like, a two mile radius.
[00:31:35] Ayo: And so that's been really, really cool. And then vocal coaches are so many everywhere. My agent, I'm able to be in the same city where my agent has actual offices and I could go to the events and the galas. And I got to sing at a agency gala recently, which is a very crazy experience because it was like casting directors and actors and directors and producers and TV show runners and stuff.
[00:31:56] Ayo: And then my agency, so it's the acting world, but now I'm
[00:31:59] Jake: Yeah. [00:32:00] Nope. No pressure.
[00:32:01] Ayo: Right, it felt like one of those like Hollywood events like Variety magazine or something like that where it's just like a lot of industry people and now I'm having to sing and it was like oh my god, but Stuff like that feels, it feels like I'm, moving forward.
[00:32:14] Jake: Yeah. Awesome. Have you, have you engaged with any of the, like IO or second city, like you said, or, any of those kinds of things like the traditional Chicago theater stuff?
[00:32:25] Ayo: I want to do more of that. I think I've been a little spoiled in the sense that the acting coaches that I currently work with already have improv as a piece of the many things that they, teach and train on. So I haven't had the need to go and seek out, like, improv specifically. Would be nice to, I do want to check out the second city type places because, like, it would be nice to go in already having a background because the nerves would be way less and I would be able to go in and, there's a sense of like, oh, look what I can do type of thing.
[00:32:54] Ayo: And so. So to be able to do that as a new person in those settings and in those spaces would be [00:33:00] fun. I want to do a lot more, because the acting that I do is very much TV and film. I'm not closing the door to theater, I'm open to, trying it. But the acting that I do right now is mostly TV and film.
[00:33:12] Ayo: And, There are some acting classes that are more focused on acting on camera, so I want to look at some of those as well, but so far I haven't done too much local Chicago training because I already had, like, my people that I was comfortable with.
[00:33:28] Jake: Yeah, that makes sense. And yeah, if that's what you're trying to get into, I know I've never acted at all, my, my, my wife's done some acting. She's an artist and things like that. So I know enough to know that theater and film just very different experiences with very different kinds of skill sets and mindsets and all that kind of stuff.
[00:33:43] Ayo: Very much so. Yeah.
[00:33:44] Jake: yeah. So, so far in Uptown, what would you say is and I know we're running overtime a little bit from what you said earlier, are you, are you okay for like another, like five minutes?
[00:33:54] Ayo: Yeah. Yeah. So,
[00:33:56] Jake: What would you say is the most surprising thing, or maybe, [00:34:00] maybe a, a, a misconception that people have had about Uptown that that you've been maybe surprised to find is either correct or incorrect?
[00:34:08] Ayo: so I haven't been surprised, but other people would be surprised because I think I don't think I don't know if there's people who realize just how many like modern nice buildings are up here. And like I said, I want to keep it that way because you know how people get. This is why we can have nice things right.
[00:34:22] Ayo: That has been interesting like just how many it's a it's like mixed in right there's a lot of the old traditional brick buildings with and then you know all these buildings like the one next to me, which. Like, they look like they used to be banks and another life and now they've turned into something else.
[00:34:36] Ayo: And then that's mixed in with very modern glass, steel and beam buildings with amenities and stuff. And so I quite like that. I like that. You get the old Avenue. And I don't know what my people picture uptown. I didn't know that they picked. They don't really picture that.
[00:34:51] Jake: Yeah.
[00:34:51] Ayo: Yeah.
[00:34:53] Jake: Makes sense. So what would you say? Just bottom line, like just in a summary, why, why do you [00:35:00] think somebody should A, want to move to Chicago and then B, if they move to Chicago, they made it that far, why do you think they would want to live in Uptown over some other neighborhoods?
[00:35:09] Ayo: Yeah. So I would say you would want to live in Chicago if you were in a pivotal time in your life and you were looking for something new, because it'll like jolt your system because there's just so much going on. You will never be in Chicago and be like, Oh, I need something to do. And there's just nothing like that'll never happen ever, ever.
[00:35:26] Ayo: And so And the fact that like Chicago is so big, it's so big. Usually cities like have when you look at their quote unquote skyline, it'll be like a cluster of like tall buildings like ahead of you like down the highway. Chicago is like a whole coast worth of skyline. And it's so beautiful. Whenever you fly into Midway from like this side, you just see this, the shoreline and the lake and the, the Ferris wheel, like the Navy pier and the buildings.
[00:35:54] Ayo: It's so beautiful. It's expansive. So many neighborhoods all with their own individual personalities. [00:36:00] There's always something to do. It's a good place for like, eat, pray, love. Section of your life where you want to, like, explore new things. And as far as Uptown specifically, I think if you enjoy having very close access to the glitz and glamour of everything that is Chicago, with the ability to just, like, tuck away when it's time to go home and, like, go somewhere that's, that still has its own things going on, but is not as crazy as being smack in the center of the city, then Uptown would be great for you because, you get to balance and you're by the lake.
[00:36:28] Ayo: So, yeah.
[00:36:31] Jake: and you even have your close proximity to some really nice, famous concert venues and things like that when people come through and, got the green, green mill right there is awesome. And all
[00:36:39] Ayo: yeah, yeah. And in terms of accessibility, it's really accessible because, like, like I said, I'm two streets from the lake, which also means I'm two streets from Lakeshore Drive. And like, once you get on Lakeshore Drive, it's a straight shot into everything else. Like, Lakeshore Drive will take you straight into West, it'll take you straight into River North, it'll take you straight.
[00:36:58] Ayo: To downtown Chicago so [00:37:00] really cool and it's one of my favorite drives that I've ever taken in any city because like you look to one side and it's the lake you look to the other side it's the marina and the city and the buildings it's a really scenic beautiful like drive
[00:37:14] Jake: Yeah, definitely.
[00:37:16] Ayo: yeah.
[00:37:17] Jake: Well, I think that's, I think those are all the main questions I have for you at this time. Is there anything are there any questions, anything that you would have wanted to bring up that I should have asked? Concerning Chicago, at least.
[00:37:28] Ayo: We, we had a, we had a pretty good conversation. I think there will always be more that could have been said about Chicago because you can talk worse. I think we did a good job, like, narrowing, narrowing it a bit and like, going in depth a little bit. If shameless plug, like if anyone wants to like, check out acting, singing stuff and reach out to me, my like, artist page is just my first like my nickname underscore my name.
[00:37:57] Ayo: Shortened first name underscore my last name. So it's A [00:38:00] Y O underscore A K I N O K U N. So that's just at Ayo underscore Akinoken. That's my Instagram handle. And then my personal one is like A Y O underscore M A Z I N G. I, I amazing, which is so annoying, but there we go.
[00:38:15] Jake: And those are for Instagram.
[00:38:17] Ayo: Instagram. Yes.
[00:38:19] Jake: I'll put some links in the show notes for those. Anywhere else that people can find you? Or would that be the best place? Instagram?
[00:38:27] Ayo: That's the best place. And if like for booking, reach out to my, my email is a y o a y o a k i n o k u n at gmail. com. And my agent is dream team talent here in Chicago. So yeah.
[00:38:42] Jake: on. All right. Well, that's awesome. Awesome stuff. All right. Thank you so much for bringing all your experience and knowledge on all kinds of things, Chicago and the worldly travels and all the other things that you brought to the show. I'm sure the audience will get a ton out of it.
[00:38:57] Ayo: Thank you so much. Where, like, how is, where, [00:39:00] where, what's, how is this going to be screened or seen or seen? Like what's, what's the, yeah. What should I expect?
[00:39:06] Jake: Sure. Yep. So this will be a podcast episode and then the video part of this will be on YouTube and then I split the video into segments. For Instagram reels and tick tocks and things like that as well.
[00:39:17] Ayo: Smart man. Smart man.
[00:39:19] Jake: Yeah. Try to get out there just in as many different ways as, as possible. So building this thing up slowly, but it's good.
[00:39:26] Jake: It's starting to get some traction.
[00:39:27] Ayo: Yeah.
[00:39:28] Jake: just the whole thing is the whole whole idea here is just to try to try to build a resource for people that are researching different neighborhoods in Chicago, whether they're looking to meet or to learn more about the neighborhood they already live in or move.
[00:39:38] Jake: Between neighborhoods or come in from somewhere else in the world, if they're they want to learn about what a neighborhood is like from somebody who actually lives there and, has that experience, then that's hopefully is a valuable resource for them.
[00:39:48] Ayo: Yeah. This would be great cause like, I, my friends always, always like joking around and telling me like, oh you have a a podcast, audio book, radio voice, and so now I can finally report back and say hey, [00:40:00] I did one.
[00:40:01] Jake: yeah, you do.
[00:40:02] Ayo: My destiny. Okay.
[00:40:04] Jake: that my whole life too. So, I figured, yeah, it could Figured it was about that time. And I listen to so many podcasts, like I probably listen to two or three hours of podcasts a day. It's it sometimes is a problem how many, how most podcasts I listen to.
[00:40:15] Jake: So I figured it was about time to contribute to the space myself instead of just consuming them all the time.
[00:40:19] Ayo: Yeah, we're both living the dream. Yeah
[00:40:24] Jake: Indeed. All right. Well, I'm going to hit the old stop record button here. So I'll say one more time, Hey, just thank you so much for coming on.
[00:40:31] Ayo: Yeah, it was my pleasure. Thank you for having me. It was so much fun
