- All right, we're back and hanging out
with Angela Bassett and Kel Mitchell
Y'all give it up.
(Audience Claps)
Are y'all into cars, you like cars?
- I do like cars.
- [Kelly] I do too.
- Me too.
Yeah. Old, new, doesn't matter. I just like cars.
- I'd like cars more if I understood them more.
(Laughter)
- Well, my next guest can help you,
which is a rarity among her peers.
That's because she owns and operates an auto repair shop.
Now, she also helps young girls understand their way
around a car.
Let's say hi to Ashley everybody.
Give it up.
(Audience Claps)
So meet Kel, meet Angela.
- Nice meet you both, you're amazing.
So happy to be here.
- So, I'm freaking out too.
- Yeah, right.
- I'm so excited. So I,
you didn't set out to work on cars, right?
- I didn't, I didn't think I was gonna
work on cars or work in
- Was your initial kind of dream?
- So, I wanted to be a virologist.
Somebody who studies viruses.
I went to the University of Colorado in Boulder.
I did that for a little bit
but halfway into it, my dad was like, Hey Ash
I want you to be a part of the business and I wanna retire.
So don't you come and, you know
see if we can make this work.
And so I
- Wow.
Was that like an easy decision or a hard?
- Honestly, at the time I was like, this is gonna
be the easiest thing I ever had to do.
And it is the hardest thing I've ever had to do
in my entire life.
- [Kelly] Oh my gosh.
- So it was, it's been great though.
I went to the Automotive Training Institute and pretty much
I did a lot of hands on training with my dad.
He was like, "You just have to listen"
- [Kelly] like an apprenticeship.
- Exactly, exactly.
And my, unfortunately my dad passed away two years ago
but I own it and run the business now,
and I've been doing that for the last twelve
years. So.
- Wow. How cool it was that you got to work with him
for that amount of time.
- You know, side by side, you know
the family business it's like, yes, good, bad.
But it was the best things.
I'm glad I had those memories with him.
- [Kelly] Yeah, yeah.
- So, definitely. Definitely. It was amazing.
- Aw, that's really cool.
(Audience Claps)
- Do customers,
do they treat you
differently when they roll up and they're like
I got a problem.
Do they ask for like a mechanic?
Do they ask for somebody else?
(Ashley laughs)
- A lot of times on the phone I'll get, "Hey, can I talk
to a mechanic?"
And I say, ask me the question.
If I can't answer it for you, then I'll get somebody
to answer it.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And I never can't answer the question.
And it's funny, a lot of men will call and be like
oh my carburetor, something's wrong with that.
Cars haven't had carburetors in a long, long time so-
(Kelly and Ashley laughing)
- I'm like, I can help you for sure.
- Oh my god.
And you're like he's all trying to sound all big and bad.
- [Ashley] Exactly, exactly.
- [Kelly] Oh my God. That's amazing.
- Yes, yes.
- Are you the type of person to call them out or let it go?
- You know what, in the beginning I kind of
I was a little jaded, but you know what, now it's a
you know, it's everybody, you know, it's all good.
So no, its uh,
- [Kelly] Oh my god
- I power through.
- [Kelly] I would have so many jokes.
Oh, I'm that person.
- [Ashley] Yeah, no you've gotta be like in the beginning,
I was a little like, uh really, but now its just kinda,
it happens, you know.
You just have to roll with it.
- [Kelly] Yeah I would've led in with
it's right next to the flex capacitor, sir.
(Kelly and Ashley laugh)
- Like your blinker fluid is really, really heavy.
- [Kelly] Like Back to the Future
- Yes, exactly. Exactly.
- Okay. So wait, you recently led a class
for female Boy Scouts on car maintenance.
So was that important to you?
- It was
So, knowledge is power and, the girls need to
understand how a car works and what's going on.
So I was able to teach them things like how to
change their oil, check their oil, tire pressure. Things
like that.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- And because I'm a woman in a man's industry
they really picked up on that and I was able to
show them other things like business skills
and how to run a business and things like that.
- Does that make you feel kind of just so powerful?
- [Ashley] So (beep).
(Audience Claps) (Ashley laughs)
- I like I'd be like, I would-
I would feel like you remember My Cousin Vinny?
- That's it! Marisa Tomei, oh everybody
(Laughter) (Audience Claps)
- So my, that one scene when
- She was like, "No, because the 67..."
like she goes to through that whole thing.
Oh my God.
I love that scene.
You're her in real life.
- People say that to me all the time
- You have achieved greatness, you are her in real life.
That's amazing.
Well, we have two of Ashley's students dialed in
so let's welcome
Radnor 284 Scouts, Grace and Ann Marie.
- Hi ladies! (Audience Claps)
- Hi, Kelly.
- Oh my gosh you guys look so cute.
- So wait
So Grace and Ann Marie, you got your badges.
So did you enjoy the class?
- So honestly I've never really been that interested in cars
but learning how to care
for them was a really great experience for me.
I grew up like only really around knowing male mechanics,
you know?
So seeing Ashley succeed so much in that department
which is normally considered to be the workforce
of a man was super amazing.
So thank you so much, Ashley for that.
And another thing I really enjoyed
about Ashley's class was that it was super interactive.
I got to do an oil change, which was super exciting for me.
And now I think that I can look at cars a lot differently
and I'm just really proud of the troop and myself.
And I'm confident that now I take the things that I learned
from Ashley and apply them to my life and my parents' lives
should they ever need help.
And just getting the badge was just really a good time.
And I think I learned a lot.
So thank you so much.
- Aw, that's so cool.
Knowledge is it's empowering.
That's so cool.
What about you, Anne Marie?
- When I first heard about the badge, I was like
if boys can do it, so can I.
(Kelly laughing)
- So we learned about like electric versus gas cars
and how they differ
and how electric cars are better for the environment.
And I was fascinated with the engine
and how it's totally different than the gas cars.
And Ashley did a great job
at teaching us and educating us on the cars
and she's very inspirational with that.
And I feel way more confident with about cars
and the basic skills that if I have any trouble
with, and the time comes for me to get my own car,
I know I can fix it and do that.
- [Kelly] Awesome.
(Claps)
It must, it must, you know,
feel pretty good to know that
you know, you're not just an example for them
but you're making a difference in their lives.
That's so cool.
- It's, it's so wonderful.
I really, I hope to do car care clinics a couple
times a year with the girls.
And I told them if, you know, feel free to reach out
and couple of them will come and, you know, work with me
for a day.
That type of thing, just to get more experience
and feel confident about what's going
- Oh yeah.
And then maybe one day we won't have little girls going
well, it's a man's world
but I wanna do it, you know.
- [Ashley] That's right.
- That's that's really cool.
- Everybody should be able to. Everybody.
- Yeah.