Video published by Daniel’s Music Foundation here on YouTube (link is external)
Smile-o-meter Friday: Episode 6 – Featuring Cornel Hrisca-Munn (Friday, February 19, 2021)
[00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[Upbeat Music – Smile-o-meter Friday Theme Song]
[Image of show’s logo in white text “Smile-o-meter Friday With Daniel & Ken” on a bright blue background with translucent white circles.]
[Image – Caricatures on a white background of Daniel in glasses wearing a white polo T-shirt waving his left hand, with the word “Daniel” above his head on the left side of the screen. Ken is wearing a dark color suit jacket over a collared shirt and sweater, waving his right hand with the word “Ken” above his head on the right side of the screen. The picture of a bright yellow sun with a smiley face slides down from the top of the screen.]
[00:00:05.73]
NARRATOR: Hosted by an unlikely duo, who are just trying to bring a little sunshine into the world.
[Image – Father and son duo, Ken and Daniel, seated in the “Studio” in front of piano against a cheery yellow wall, with a square Smile-o-meter Friday logo on the wall between them. Ken is on the right side of the screen, wearing a light grey-colored button-down shirt. Daniel is on the left, wearing glasses and a black button-down shirt.]
[00:00:12.50]
DANIEL: Welcome to Smile-o-meter Friday!
[00:00:17.60]
KEN: Hi, everyone. Today we're back traveling virtually, and off to England. We have a lot to cover, so let's dive right into our first segment.
[00:00:27.52]
DANIEL & KEN: Did You Know?
[Image – The words “Did You Know?” large black letters on a white background slide down from the top of the screen. Illustrations of both Daniel and Ken deep in thought appear. They share the same thought bubble above their heads that includes a “thinking” emoji (a round yellow face with its right hand resting by the chin, with its thumb and pointer finger extended).]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:00:32.85]
KEN: Did you know that London is one of the most diverse cities in the world, with over 9 million people who collectively speak over 300 languages?
[Image – A pile of small colorful strips of paper with the word “Thank you” printed in various foreign languages, such as “Obrigado,” “Gracias,” “Merci” and “Danke” among many others]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:00:43.05]
DANIEL: Did you know that there are 775 rooms in Buckingham Palace, where the Queen lives, and over 200 bedrooms?
[Image – Short video of Buckingham Palace: Exterior shots of the palace and its landscaped grounds with statues in the background and beautiful red flowers in the foreground; Interior shots of an ornately decorated bedroom with a fireplace, red wallpaper and paintings with gold-colored frames on the walls, a gold-colored four-poster bed with luxurious green, purple and beige color fabrics and sheets, large crystal chandelier hanging from a gold-colored decorated ceiling, plus various antique wooden tables, chairs and furniture throughout the bedroom.]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:00:55.71]
KEN: And of course, as everyone knows, their musicians, bands, and music are just off the charts. Today, we thought we'd play a little “Do you know?” game. Daniel will sing or play a song, and you have to name the song, plus the musician or band. Ready, Daniel?
[00:01:16.59]
DANIEL: Ready! (SINGING) Who are you? Who, who, who, who?
[00:01:24.87]
KEN: If you guessed...
[00:01:25.65] [DRUMROLL]
[00:01:26.64]
KEN: …"Who Are You" by The Who…
[Image – Photo of four musicians who make up the band “The Who,” standing in front of a castle wall]
KEN: …you are correct!
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
KEN: Next up.
[00:01:32.93]
DANIEL: (SINGING) We are the champions, my friend. And we'll keep on fighting till the end.
[00:01:47.07]
KEN: If you guessed…
[00:01:47.88] [DRUMROLL]
[00:01:49.49]
KEN: "We Are the Champions" by Queen…
[Image – Photo of four members of the band “Queen”]
KEN: …you are correct!
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
KEN: Now we're going to dial it up a bit.
[00:01:59.50]
DANIEL: (SINGING) Dancing in the dark with you between my arms, barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song.
[00:02:14.84]
KEN: If you guessed…
[00:02:15.70] [DRUMROLL]
[00:02:17.39]
KEN: "Perfect" by Ed Sheeran…
[Image – Photo of Ed Sheeran]
KEN: …who was born in England, you are correct!
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
KEN: And now, for our final song.
[00:02:25.99] [MUSIC - CHRIS MARTIN, "SKY FULL OF STARS"]
[Image – Short video of Daniel and DMF instructor Elena playing the piano together, accompanied by DMF Artistic Director Gerry on the acoustic guitar, instructor Juliana on percussions, and instructor Scott playing an electric guitar]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:02:51.84]
KEN: If you guessed…
[00:02:52.71] [DRUMROLL]
[00:02:54.14]
KEN: …"Sky Full of Stars" by Chris Martin from Coldplay…
[Image – Photo of Chris Martin of Coldplay]
KEN: …you are correct!
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
KEN: Thanks for the musical journey, D. You really are a walking jukebox. And now that we've shared some fun facts about England and their music, it's time for our main segment.
[00:03:11.60]
DANIEL & KEN: Adventures with Daniel and Ken!
[Image – The words “Adventures with Daniel & Ken” in black letters on the top left corner of a white background slides up from the bottom of the screen. Illustrations of Daniel on the right, smiling and sitting with him arms outstretched in the folds of a paper airplane, flying over a green and blue globe of the world below him. Ken is sitting in another paper airplane below the globe on the left.]
[Image – Globe of the world showing a map of the United States, with a round red circle identifying the location of New York City. The globe spins to the left, and a red line travels from New York and lands in England on the map of the U.K.]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:03:16.14]
KEN: Today we are super excited about introducing our musical guest, Cornel Hrisca-Munn from England, who plays both the bass guitar and drums.
[Image – Photo of Cornel playing the drums on stage]
KEN: He was born without lower arms and has an above-the-knee amputated right leg…
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
KEN: …but that has never stopped him from pursuing his musical dreams and career.
[Image – Photo of Cornel wearing headphones and playing the bass guitar in his living room]
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:03:36.36]
DANIEL: Dad, let's go right to the videotape and check out Cornel on the bass guitar, playing to one of my favorite songs, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor.
[00:03:48.30] [MUSIC - GLORIA GAYNOR, "I WILL SURVIVE"]
[Image – Short video of Cornel playing “I Will Survive” on his bass guitar]
[00:03:48.57] (SINGING) Go on now, go. Walk out the door, just turn around now, 'cause you're not welcome anymore. Weren't you the one who tried to crush me with goodbye? Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?
[00:04:04.47] (SINGING) No, no, not I. I will survive, and as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive. I've got all my life to live, and I've got all my love to give. And I'll survive. I will survive. I will survive.
[INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING]
[00:04:35.79] (SINGING) Go on now. Go. Walk out the door. Just turn around now, 'cause you're not welcome anymore. Weren't you the one who tried to crush me with goodbye?
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:04:48.77]
DANIEL: And now, let's check out his speed on the kit, playing a portion of "September" by Earth, Wind & Fire.
[00:04:57.05] [MUSIC - EARTH, WIND & FIRE, "SEPTEMBER"]
[Image – Short video of Cornel rocking out to “September” on his drum kit]
[00:04:57.55] (SINGING) Ba-de-ya, dancing in September. Ba-de-ya, never was a cloudy day. The bells were ringing. Oh, our souls were singing. Do you remember, never a cloudy day? Yow.
[00:05:24.00] (SINGING) There was a Ba-de-ya, say do you remember? Ba-de-ya, dancing in September, Ba-de-ya never was a cloudy day.
[00:05:39.47] (SINGING) Ba-de-ya, say do you remember? Ba-de-ya, dancing in September, Ba-de-ya, never was a cloudy day…
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:05:56.44]
KEN: Hi, Cornel. Awesome playing, and good to see you. Thanks for being on Smile-o-meter Friday. Can you believe it will be a year on March 8th since we last connected, and you were honored at the first Danny Awards?
[Image – Cornel in his home in England, being interviewed by Daniel and Ken via video call]
[00:06:11.28]
CORNEL: Hey, Daniel and Ken. It is so great to connect with you all again. I can't believe that it's been a year since the Danny Awards. Wow. I mean, it's a shame I couldn't be there, but what an amazing experience that looked like. And it was an honor to have an award. So thank you guys for that. I really hope that you guys are doing well across the pond this time. I mean, it's been a crazy year, but I hope that you're doing well.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:06:31.88]
DANIEL: What is your most memorable musical moment?
[Image – Cornel in his home]
[00:06:36.44]
CORNEL: It's really quite a challenge to pick my most memorable musical moment. I've had so many fortunately. Aside from winning a Danny Award last year of course, there's a few. So one of them that sticks out to me is when I appeared as the house band drummer for the band on a TV program in the U.K. called The Last Leg, which is like a comedy panel show but about disability, and appearing on there was amazing the whole experience.
[00:07:00.50]
CORNEL: We were treated really well as a band and we were put up in a hotel and everything like that, and it was the night I'd came back from honeymoon with my wife so that was pretty incredible. And meeting all the celebrities and the presenters and actually playing the show and then actually afterwards being really involved with the cast and crew, you know, joining the after party with all of the people that were guests on the show as well as the presenters. We felt really welcome. It felt like a real family. So I think that sticks out to me as a special moment.
[00:07:24.83]
CORNEL: Other than that every time I play live is a special moment, isn't it really? I could point to shows I've played in Barcelona and large theaters there to thousands of people. That was a pretty breathtaking experience, and you know, playing in church sometimes. Playing at the Oxford University joint service for a number of churches across the city was amazing. There was around 1,500 people crammed into this amazing hall with amazing acoustics, and I played with our church band as well as a full orchestra, playing some gospel songs and worship songs and that was pretty incredible too. So it's hard to pick one, but there's a few of my favorite musical moments there.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:08:00.57]
KEN: What is the one thing that people say or do that you would like them to stop doing?
[Image – Cornel in his home]
[00:08:07.04]
CORNEL: (LAUGHING) One thing that I wish people would either stop doing or saying. Do I have to only pick one? There's a few things there really. In terms of disability and my music as well, but disability generally, I think I speak for a lot of disabled people we get frustrated when people call us inspirational for just doing day-to-day things and going about our day-to-day lives. I don't want to be called inspirational for that. I find that easy. I find driving a car easy. I find going about my day-to-day life. I find eating food easy. I've been called inspirational for just being able to hold and eat an apple independently.
[00:08:43.57]
CORNEL: Surely that devalues the real achievements of disabled people that we can achieve great things, things such as playing music, playing live in front of people, being great sports people. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those, but we can do great things despite what people might think of us and it's devaluing when people call us inspirational for just doing the day-to-day things. I mean, think about it. Would you call somebody else inspirational who wasn't disabled for doing day to day things? Have a think what has a disabled person actually inspired you to do before using that term.
[00:09:13.15]
CORNEL: And look, another thing is, take us seriously. Take our music seriously, you know. Get what we're about. Understand that we're trying to do things either for fun, or trying to do things because we want to make a career out of these things, or because we might be good at things. We might be showing how good we are at these things, so please take us seriously for what we do.
[00:09:31.27]
CORNEL: Me, personally I find that a lot with my music. Please, if I'm trying to show that I can do something musically, please take that seriously from a music point of view and not just from the point of view as I'm a disabled person having a go, I'm trying. I'd like to think I'm quite good at some of these things and I'd like to be recognized for that.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:09:48.63]
DANIEL: Cornel, you are a man of strong faith. How has your faith helped you both in your day-to-day life as well as with your music?
[Image – Cornel in his home]
[00:10:00.36]
CORNEL: I am a man of strong faith, and that kind of transcends every part of my life from music to my day-to-day activities, and that's for a number of reasons. Musically, I love playing in church. I love playing praise and worship songs and gospel songs, and encouraging others, and lifting up others through my music, whether it's playing drums or bass in a church service setting and just to corporately worship together. It's one of my favorite things to do, but my faith is more than that it's a really personal thing, my faith in God.
[00:10:29.00]
CORNEL: I was raised in a Christian home, and my faith in God has always been there because I've seen what God has done in my life. I've seen all the blessings that he's poured out on me. I've seen how he brought me to be adopted by great Christian parents and have a really fantastic upbringing. People look at me and see my disability, and they think, well, he must have it so hard.
[00:10:50.42]
CORNEL: Actually, I'm here to say I've been really blessed and really fortunate with a lot of the gifts that God has given me. Don't pity me because I've been given a lot of great blessings, and I have a strong faith and I know I have a God who loves me. So that has really impacted my day-to-day life as well as my music.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:11:08.52]
KEN: Who are some of your favorite musicians and influences?
[Image – Cornel in his home]
[00:11:12.65]
CORNEL: So a lot of my musical influences and people who I look up to are really quite technical players, especially when you look at drummers. So, a lot of my favorite drummers are people like Thomas Lang, who's just an absolute powerhouse – please check him out. He's so technical but makes it look so effortless. People like Juan Carlito Mendoza; he won the American, USA Guitar Center Drum-Off a little while ago, and his solo that won that competition is quite frankly one of the best drum solos I've ever seen. I urge you to check that one out.
[00:11:43.82]
CORNEL: In terms of bass players, oh, there's a few there. One of my favorite bands growing up was The Red Hot Chili Peppers, so obviously Flea from the Chili Peppers has really influenced my sound and my feel. And it was actually the outro baseline to "Under the Bridge" that really made me want to start learning bass just because I have that really sort of mellow and cool sound on what was an iconic track of the '90s. So yeah, he was one of the big ones there but a lot more technical players as well.
[00:12:09.93]
CORNEL: So, again back to drummers, I like Nate Smith. I like people like Benny Greb. I like people like Gavin Harrison – all incredible drum clinicians, all incredible musicians as well. So Jojo Mayer in Nerve. I've recently gotten into more of drum and bass style drumming but also with an influence of jazz and sort of fusion as well. So these are all the guys that I'm looking up to at the moment. So, I would really recommend checking some of those out. But yeah, these are people which I really looked up to.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:12:36.28]
DANIEL: What is something about you that only a select group of people know?
[Image – Cornel in his home]
[00:12:42.42]
CORNEL: I think there's quite a few things that only a select number of people know about me. I mean, let me give you some quickfire facts that you might not know. So, first things first, maybe I shouldn't be so proud of this, but I have successfully completed three challenges across the U.S. as featured on the TV program Man v. Food. They were all relating to quantity, although I do like spicy food. I'm not going to go into details of which ones they were, but it's safe to say I shouldn't be as proud of them as I actually am.
[00:13:11.49]
CORNEL: Another thing people might not know, a lot of my interests, so as well as music, drums, bass, I also enjoy sports. I enjoy theology and philosophy. I have a master's degree in that from the University of Oxford, for example. I also enjoy quite niche interests, so I really enjoy aviation and airplanes. A lot of my friends tease me and say how on Earth did I find myself a wife whilst being so into planes, so into aircraft, but here we are. That's a few things people might not know about me, so some quickfire facts there. Anything else, follow my online pages. I might tell you some more facts.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:13:44.83]
DANIEL: Thanks, Cornel, for being on our show.
[00:13:47.98]
KEN: We truly appreciate it. Keep up the great work, stay well, and let's stay connected.
[Image – Cornel in his home]
[00:13:54.94]
CORNEL: Daniel and Ken, it was great to see you again. Great to talk to you guys. I really hope that we can meet in person someday when this all calms down. Yeah, thank you for today. It was awesome.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:14:05.17]
DANIEL: That was really amazing. But guess what, dad, now it's time for our final segment.
[Image – The words “Food For Thought” in black letters on a white background slide up from the bottom of the screen. Caricatures of Daniel winking, with his face peering through the middle of a bright yellow pineapple, and Ken holding up a big slice of watermelon with a smiley face on it.)
[00:14:12.25]
DANIEL & KEN: Food For Thought
[Image – White letters slide in from the left and right sides on a black screen to form the quote:
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal…
it is the courage to continue that counts.”]
[00:14:14.56]
DANIEL: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal… it is the courage to continue that counts."
[Image – Black & white photos of Sir Winston Churchill]
DANIEL: Sir Winston Churchill, former prime minister of the United Kingdom.
[Image – Daniel and Ken in the studio]
[00:14:31.91]
KEN: Thanks for joining us. And remember: listen, learn, and understand differences. And…
[00:14:39.77]
DANIEL & KEN: (Pointing their fingers towards the camera with big smiles on their faces) See you next time!
[00:14:43.16] [MUSIC PLAYING]
[Music – Smile-o-meter Friday theme song]
[Image of show’s title “Smile-o-meter Friday With Daniel & Ken” on a bright blue background.]
[A final slide includes white words on a black background:
THANKS FOR WATCHING!
TO LEARN MORE VISIT DANIELSMUSIC.ORG]