If you want to listen to this episode or any of our episodes, ad free, you can do that now.

Head on over the Patreon.

Click on the ad free level.

You get all of our bonus shows that you've been hearing so much about.

Plus every single day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, you can listen to this episode or any of our other episodes at the same time, ad free over on Patreon. Hey everyone. This is David. Welcome back behind the velvet rope. We are here in New York,

in studio with the one, the only, does she need any introduction? Miss Candice Dillard Bassett.

Hi. Thank you. I'm great. I'm here for you. You are in New York. How's it going?

It's going great. There's so much going on.

Life is just like everywhere, but it's all good stuff.

So I'm happy and I feel really blessed.

That's good.

Well, listen, you are a singer, a songwriter, an actress, reality TV host, former Miss USA.

Miss United States.

Oh, United States. I like to give that disclaimer. Yes, because there are so many different pageant system. That's true. United States. Yes. And you just hosted a pageant somewhere, didn't you? I just judged Miss Teen USA, which was like a full circle moment. It was amazing. Yeah. I competed in the Miss USA system for years. and at the time, they're kind of going through a lot right now. But at the time, they were the pinnacle of like pageant greatness. You wanted to win Miss USA. And I was competing in D.C. And I was first runner up and I aged out, which means that you are too old to compete.

And I thought that, oh, my God, my pageant career is over.

And a friend of mine was like, you should consider this other system.

It's called the Miss United States system.

And I was like, okay.

And I went.

I won my local, my state, and then I won the national title, which was Miss United States.

So, but to compete, to judge Miss Teen USA, which is still, like, considered one of the

premier pageants, even with all of the drama, was like a dream come true. And it's, it's a,

...