She's burning it up! You know her from Big Brother, guys. She- You're gonna have to move over a little. Okay, maybe you'll see it down here. How is everyone? Happy ten years! We've been doing this damn thing for ten years. Thank you all for coming. Oh, my God, ten years. Shit. I was twenty-five when I started this. I didn't even know I- My arm is against my tripod. So, we're gonna start off with a little video that I did with the originals, that has been running nationwide for a little bit, but it's like a minute and a half. But I thought it'd be nice to, to look back a little bit with a couple of my real friends, who, when I picked up the phone ten years ago, they answered.

All right, let's start there. No way, they're better. Let's discuss the Blue Jacket Fashion Show. A decade, ten years, and these are the originals. It's like, I don't know if we're The Supremes or- No, we're just the original cast of Friends. And I think that each of us look younger, except for Mario, and, I've only waited to look this good since seventy-nine. I actually look forward to this every year. Am I the only one who looks forward to it? Oh, I, I love it. I look forward to it every year because it's the only time I get to feel like a model and walk down a runway.

It's so exciting. Yeah. And for such a great cause. The reason I wanted this is to guide the conversation. one of the big things that we don't do is we don't have conversations about anything, much less about, you know, their, health or anything.

That's a good point. Actually, the outcome was exactly that. We ended up this little team, and this little, like, you know, the Blue Jacket, like, fighters, I guess. This is, like, one of the number one killers for men. Yeah, one in eight. It's crazy. There's no excuse anymore. Yeah. There, there was an excuse back then because it was hard to find, but now there's so many ways, and all it takes is a little blood test. And they can at least find if your number's elevated, then go deeper. So, preventable, like, if you get on top of it early, it's, it's so treatable. My, my doctors are used to, you know, detecting it the old-fashioned way, and so they're like, "Just for safety," then I'm a good superstar.

Yeah. But there was a, a, time when they were wrong. My father died of prostate cancer, and he was diagnosed in nineteen ninety, and it was too late. I was actually working in Esquire, and, and obviously been in the fashion industry at that point, like, sixteen years, and I was just, like, kind of aggravated with the idea that we do all these fundraisers for breast cancer, and I kept saying, "You know, the majority of the designers are men. What about the men? I understand we dress women, but, like, the men should have the same conversation." So I called J&J, and J&J came on board and said, "Oh, this is a great idea.

We'll take it." So J&J started funding it, and they've been there since the beginning. This fashion show has life. You know what I, I love about, too, about the fashion show is, like, the camaraderie.

Like, everyone is cheering everyone on, and people are trying to outdo one another, but not in a competitive way. Once again, this is about awareness. Bill Nye gets, like, millions of impressions- Yeah ... because it goes viral every season. Did you know he was the most Googled person in fashion week last year? Really? Yeah. From cover to women's wear day. They had a big picture of him saying he was the most Googled person. Out of all the shows. Think about it, during fashion week, Bill Nye was the star of fashion week. Well, I want to thank you guys. Yo, hang on. Since the beginning.

We want to thank you because- We want to thank you. -this is an amazing experience for us, and you're helping people, and it's not about you, and didn't even refer to you, but I wanted to say that before we finished. we want to thank you for allowing us to do this every year and for helping so many. Oh, God. I just want to introduce my friend, Don. We thought it would be, He's kind of like an ambassador for us now. he's been here every single year. He's the first person I called, and he came through for me. he and Mario, actually, Mario, who's, like, right behind us, were the first people I called, and they came through for me.

And, I just thought, you know, this year I wanted him to say a few words because he is like, he's just the real deal. And I think that his honesty and his commitment to, not to me, but to this cause, is, is, is, breathtaking for me, and I thank you. Is it on? Hi, guys. How are you?

How are you? Thank you. So, this is very important to me. One, one of the years, I think it was the second or third year that I was doing this, my sister passed in Louisiana, and I had this commitment to her to, to Frederick, and I came, I flew back. He did. He flew back for me. And then I flew back to Louisiana to take care of things with my family, but I just flew in and flew out, back out. But this is really important to me because I've had friends who were affected by this. I've had loved ones who have succumbed to it, and it is-- it can be a silent killer, but it doesn't have to be.

So this is something that's really near and dear, to my heart. And so I want to thank you guys for coming out. I'm not gonna walk this year, the typical thing that I do, so this is my walk that I'm gonna give to you guys. And I wanna thank I wanna thank Carlos Campos for this. Thank you. I love you guys, too. So, I'm here just because this is really important, and I believe in freedom of expression. I believe in And, and I want you guys to do it for- Sorry. This is stronger than what I say, so good to see you.... So I, I believe in the First Amendment, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, all of those things.

And I think it's important for you guys to support that, and especially to support in this day and age, independent journalism and independent media. And, of course, support what's happening here. And you love what? Tim is here somewhere, my Kevin Costa. Where's my bodyguard? There he is.

Tim! Tim's in the house. If I- -should stay. Woo! So, just, just support, and I wanna thank all of my friends who've been here from the beginning, Mario, Dominic, e- everyone, David Burke is back there. Alex Lenquiz. And Alex Lenquiz, everyone. And you know, I wasn't going to come, and I had to convince my reps to come because I said, "Look, this is important. It's a charity." And I got a text from Bill Nye, and he said, "We would just love it if you would show up." And so Bill Nye, thank you for being a big help, helping me to come here. And I want to thank you for what you do in bringing awareness to prostate cancer, and just thank you so much.

I love you so much. I love you guys, and also just give the guys here the biggest cheer, and thank you for everything you do. All right. I am- I think a big gulp there. we're gonna now jump into a video. Since the very beginning, J&J has been there for me. And when I say been there, when I say, "Guys, I have this crazy idea," I, I, I, I do come up with, like, wacky ideas. They're always like: "Yeah, well, let's see how we can make that friendly to everyone else." But they always say yes. and they've said yes for ten years. and I can't tell them enough how much it means to me, and it means to every guy here, but also the millions of people who are watching and knowing that you have their back.

They had our back when we were kids, when we had the little, you know, the ear problems or whatever, and they have our back now when we have prostate problems.

So thank you to J&J team, all of them here, because you support us in so many ways, that's important. So, with that, Villa Jana could not be here tonight, the head of this division, but we have a little video from her that we'd like to show. Cancer touches all of us in some way, whether it's a family member, a friend, or a colleague. The impact is profound, and the need for hope, progress, and support is urgent. That's why Johnson & Johnson is deeply honored to have been involved with Blue Jacket Fashion Show since the very beginning. And this year's milestone equals a decade of a beautiful partnership with this incredible movement, one that seeks to encourage and facilitate men to take ownership and control of their health and get screened for prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in American men and is the second leading cause of cancer death in men. Early diagnosis of prostate cancer gives men more treatment options and increases survival rates. Men of color are disproportionately at risk for prostate cancer, and factors such as underrepresentation in clinical trials and limited access to screenings have all contributed to issues in having honest conversations about the disease and also receiving treatment sooner. We need to change this paradigm, so every step we take together brings us closer to breakthroughs in research, to early detection and support for those who need it the most.

Our ultimate goal is to make cancer a thing of the past, and together, we know we can save lives.

Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Cruz from J&J. Talk a little bit. I, I did a bad thing. I'm, I went the bathroom. Good evening, everybody. It's, really great to be here with you. my name is Matt Bruce. I'm the vice president of our sales and marketing team at J&J, specifically focused on prostate cancer. And, it's been said already, that this ten-year anniversary of this event is really special. And I want to start with a huge congratulations to Frederick and the entire Blue Jacket Fashion Show team. So let's give a round of applause. I also want to thank you for picking up the phone and calling J&J, because as you know, our long history, here in healthcare, this is an amazing event to bring together media, fashion, entertainment, sports, healthcare.

There's physicians in the audience to really tackle a devastating epidemic that, exists in our society, and that is the underdiagnosis of prostate cancer. And I just happened to come back from the International Prostate Cancer Update, which just happened this week in Colorado, and they had a session entirely focused on disparities in diagnosis and outcomes specifically for Black and Latino patients, and we can do so much more. And it starts with a simple blood test to test, to see if the PSA is rising, so that we can detect early, treat early, because as a good friend of mine, Matt, told me just today, that ninety-nine percent survival rate when you find it early, and so we need to do that....

So we're committed, to another ten years of the Blue Jacket Fashion Show.

I'm not sure if my communications team wanted me to commit to that. But we are committed. I do. I do! And, just really, really excited to be here. And, hope you guys have an amazing night. I can't wait for the show. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next we have-- We only have, like, two more, and then we'll, we'll jump into the show. But this is important because we are here for this, and so I do want you to have a little background, because when you go out in the world, I want you to be my ambassadors and shoot it and do beautiful videos and all of the Instagram, but I want you to have facts, okay?

To support all of that, because that's one of my pet peeves. Facts matter. So, so a few more speeches, and then we'll jump in, and we're gonna have the best time of your life. All right, next, my charity that has been with me for six years. Where's Shari? Where is she? Well, there you are, girlfriend. Zero Prostate Cancer. Uh- Yeah. -they are so amazing, and they've been supporting us. they're live streaming this tonight, which they're gonna tell you a little bit about. Yes, we're working on it. but, amazing, amazing, amazing. Go on the website, delve deep into it. They do great kind of activations year-round, and they have someone here tonight, Brian Bragg, who's gonna speak a little bit about what they do.

Thank you. Thank you, Frederick. I'm the someone here tonight from Zero Prostate Cancer. My name is Brian Bragg, and I'm the Chief Mission Officer, and I am honored to be here on this historic night, the tenth Annual Blue Jacket Fashion Show.

What's good? When I look around, I see more than just a runway and a room full of very important people. I see powerful advocacy in action. We are gathered during Black History Month and World Cancer Day for one reason: to make sure that zero-- that prostate cancer is impossible to ignore. Now, we've heard some statistics, but let me just go over some familiar items for those of you who know. One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. But you can't talk about that number without also addressing health inequity, because Black men are seventy percent more likely to be diagnosed and twice as likely to die from prostate cancer, and that is the reason why we fight.

Yes. Those statistics behind them are the people that we love. We're talking about our fathers, our sons, our brothers, our lovers, our partners, and our friends. Zero is also celebrating a milestone as well. This is our thirtieth year. Thirty years ago, we were founded as the National Prostate Cancer A few snaps. I don't know, maybe. In the time since we started, we have unlocked over two billion dollars for prostate cancer, public funding for prostate cancer research. And as I speak, our CEO is in DC, working through the conversations, talking about policies that will save lives, because we believe that no one should be left behind or should be left alone to fight prostate cancer by themselves.

We will not stop till everyone has access to the care that they deserve. And as the nation's number one provider of prostate cancer resources, our mission is simple: to improve and save lives from prostate cancer.

And that could be from our new twenty-four/seven online support, the nation's largest network of at-- supporters or our advocacy, but we will not stop fighting. We will replace silence and stigma with action and with hope. Thank you. Thank you. So I want to say thank you to our partners at blackdoctor.org, who are here tonight live streaming. Thank you. As well as to our ambassadors, Marcus Blasingame, Allen Houston, and Rico Ross, who are participating in tonight's show. And also And Black Doctor is an important, you know, because we can't fit a million people in here, and so they're helping to want more people engaged and involved in tonight's historic milestone event.

But I would like to invite and urge everyone here living with a prostate or with a prostate and those that are watching at home, to take charge of their health. Start that conversation, get screened. If you need help, go to zerocancer.org for help and support. We together can build a future where no one at risk or living with the, the diagnosis will be left behind. Thank you, and let's have a great show. All right, here we go. Two more quickly. Here we go. These are good ones. Michael Pugh. All right, this guy came on last year as a sponsor with us. He's amazing, and he's gonna tell us a little bit about his organization, which helps with inner-city services.

And, we're gonna march out across the, the globe with this one this year. We're gonna do testing all over the country. but he'll tell you a little bit about that as we, we talk.

All right. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I'm excited to be here, but I would also say that I'm honored to be here and, and to have this opportunity to share space with all of you. The work that we do at LISC, Local Initiative Support Corporation, is directly aligned with this very important cause, and it's such important work. We galvanize and leverage about three billion dollars every year throughout the United States, where we going on, to help focus on affordable housing, health and wellness. Our health and wellness mission and, and priorities are directly aligned with why we are all here tonight.

I would be remiss if I did not take an opportunity to just celebrate and recognize that we have some tremendous visionary, people that have helped to bring all of this together and make it possible. Let me first just start with, Frederick, and ask that you all indulge me in giving him a big round of applause....the ability to take a whiteboard and add pictures to it and understand how to help elevate this story. When we look at our Man Cave Health team and our Zero Prostate Cancer, group, and we continue to think about all of the partners that have played a very, very important role in, in today, along with Blue Jacket, we celebrate them, and we thank them for the work that they've, been doing.

I also want to take a quick opportunity to celebrate and recognize, some members of my fraternity, fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated. They-- I want to ask you before I tell you a little bit about what, what they've done, let me just say, we are a hundred and fifty thousand plus members strong with health and wellness.

Yo! Health and wellness being an important part of the work that we do, and one of the things I can say, my heart is extremely pleased, is we played a critical role in helping to raise awareness for the first testing site and get people out there. So please give them a big round of applause. Now, you've heard some statistics. We all understand why this is important, and if you would just allow me to connect it to two real human experiences, real people, real experiences. The first one has been about three years ago, when I initially met Frederick and learned about this initiative and thought, "Wow, this is an incredible opportunity to be a part of something, helping to instill wellness and consciousness about it." And when we raised a, uh-- we did a social media campaign, the stories that I heard from people were heart-wrenching.

We heard stories of lives that were saved and some that had to say goodbye to family members. And there were faces and names that rung throughout that social media campaign that told me I had to be a part of this, and I'm happy to say that for three years, we have been so supporting this, but I will be even happier when I s- say to all of you, we don't have to support it because we found a way to cure it and get rid of it. And one of the key ways to be able to do that is through prevention and testing, and so you're going to hear a little bit about how you can even get the testing today.

Last thing I'll say to you all is that I was meant to be here with you.

I was meant to share this space today, and here's the reason why. On the way here, frantically trying to figure out how to get dressed and end work meetings and all of that stuff, I received a text message from a friend, someone that I'd worked with about twenty years ago. I spent about ten years of my career mentoring him, hadn't talked to him in a few years, and he sent the message and said, "I saw the, I saw the social media information that you all had put out regarding, prostate cancer testing, and I have prostate cancer. I'm going to be starting radiation treatment next week." I paused for a moment because, of course, whenever you see something like that, your heart just aches for the person that's going through this experience.

And in the note that he sent me, by text, he said, "I can't believe that this has happened, but I'm so glad that there are people out there raising awareness and telling their story." And so my ask of all of you tonight, and as we leave this event, continue to ask your friends and family members to get tested. It's a simple and easy test, and you'd be surprised how many people that just don't know that the test is quick, and it's painless, and it's not the traditional way that maybe ten years ago, some of us would have been embarrassed to talk about how we had to have the testing.

This is a quick and easy way to do it and make sure that we save lives. Let's work together. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Michael. And last but not least, we have a new, group on with us this year who really raised the bar for us.

It's Man Cave Health. And if you haven't noticed, they came up with the blue jacket. We're a team now, and it's kind of amazing. He's going to come out and tell you a little bit about it. Chris Masters! Team leader. You know what's so interesting? They've got the Southern accent into the, this whole thing. We all are from the south. But it's not three minutes. So Chris Masters, Executive Director of Man Cave Health, and it has been an absolute honor and pleasure to be part of the Blue Jacket team. Of course, thank you again to Frederick for the invitation. And we do have some thank yous, but we do have to applaud.

Sounded like you guys are losing steam. I'm gonna need you. I'm gonna need you. So first, I wanna, recognize our founder and his wife and his family are here, Tom and Adriana Milana. It's blinding, but they're right here. In twenty eighteen, in twenty eighteen, they turned their family foundation, to early detection, and they built the first Man Cave in New York City, the second in Newport Beach. By the way, it's another fantastic place to visit, if you've been there. But now we're sitting in twenty twenty-six. Not only do we have a virtual support group, not only are we doing events like the Rose Bowl and the Pocono Raceway, we're in churches, we're across the country, the HBCU community, et cetera.

We are now launching-- we've actually already launched our first one in California, but a fleet of vans that are gonna stay in the community. You can show up once a year, but this is about being part of a team, being part of Team Blue Jacket, and showing up for your neighbors, who, by the way, are three miles away in Harlem, which is where we started.

At Mother AMD- And first, tell them the secret, it's free. Well, we don't give away that. That's Come on!... 'cause, 'cause trust me, we work hard to make it free. Free. Number two- Free testing. Number two, we were in Brooklyn at the Restoration Plaza. If you know it, it's a community center. Absolutely. Don't worry, you don't get a T-shirt for raising your hand. That's good. And then finally, we were at Sharon Baptist, and I'm telling you, and that was in the Bronx. So these teams, along by our partner, Northwell Health, I cannot say thank you enough. We've got Dr. Seneji here, and the entire Northwell team who showed up in your communities around New York City.

And all I can tell you, Frederick, it's gonna be more free next year. And guess what? Amen! We're gonna screen even more men. So ladies, kick your men in the butt, get them screening. But I'm telling you, you're now part of Team Blue Jacket. Show up for every single organization, whether it's JJ, Zero, List, Man Cave Health. You know where to find us. Show up for your people. On that note, I'm gonna hand this back, 'cause I gotta throw out T-shirts! Oh, yeah. All right, guys. All right, Miss DJ, let's get a beat. All right, we're gonna start this show off. I think we're ready now, right?

Are we ready? All right, to start off the show, once again, not an old timer in a bad way, an old timer in a real way. One of the first people I called when we started the business was my friend, who we did Broadway together a hundred years ago.

I know you don't know I did Broadway, but I did. And, and I called him, and he said, "Yes." There was one other person, Billy Porter, who also was with us, and he couldn't be here tonight. He's in Europe, but he text- he texted me and said to tell everyone he wishes he was here, because he was the other one. But to start the show off tonight, my friend Mario Cantone! Wow. .........