Speaker 1: And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2: And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Welcome to you, and That's what you Really miss podcast.
Speaker 3: Kevin.
Speaker 1: It's such a special day.
Speaker 2: We have an icon, legend, film TV superstar Stephen Tablowski. Oh,
Speaker 2: Sandy Ryerson.
Speaker 4: No introduction. Sandy Ryerson has the craziest stories to share
Speaker 4: with us. Also about his Glee audition. I cannot even
Speaker 4: it's it's so it's so it sounds so far fetched
Speaker 4: that you're like, that can't be real, But it's real.
Speaker 2: Leah has always had the craziest audition story, and I
Speaker 2: think now this week because yes we met, like it
Speaker 2: took this long to find someone else, but it is
Speaker 2: one of the craziest stories I've ever heard.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 2: So, without further ado, the amazing Stephen Tablowski.
Speaker 5: Hello kids.
Speaker 2: Oh we are in the presence of greatness.
Speaker 4: What what? Oh I'm so happy?
Speaker 1: What a joy?
Speaker 5: It's it is such It's so good to be back
Speaker 5: in this corral again.
Speaker 2: That's why we keep doing this. We can't get enough
Speaker 2: of it, you know, we just need to be around
Speaker 2: each other.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, good to see you.
Speaker 5: Good, Good to see you too, guys. Good to see Eachna.
Speaker 2: Wow, thank you so much. Your voice just makes me
Speaker 2: feel like I know at home.
Speaker 5: We're back.
Speaker 2: You guys as everybody.
Speaker 5: Thank you, thank you very much, Thank you God than
Speaker 5: what made you think of doing this Glee thing?
Speaker 2: The fans wouldn't leave us alone. No, we were forced
Speaker 2: into it. They berated us and were like, fine, we'll.
Speaker 1: Do it, yeah, relentless.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's worked out. Yeah, we get to talk
Speaker 2: to people like you and reconnect. And because you know,
Speaker 2: you who has worked more than anybody I've ever met
Speaker 2: in my entire life. You've never stopped working. No, I
Speaker 2: don't know. Good for you and your health insurance.
Speaker 1: Yep, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know how you do it, how you have the time.
Speaker 2: And you're still so good in every single thing you do,
Speaker 2: up everything, everything you've worked with everyone.
Speaker 5: Well yeah, well almost, but but that's because they cut
Speaker 5: me out of all the things I'm not good at,
Speaker 5: you know. That's it's that editing thing, you know, but
Speaker 5: it's and the things that you think are going to
Speaker 5: be great, you know, don't turn out to be great.
Speaker 5: And the things that you think are going to be like,
Speaker 5: oh well this is trouble like Lee, turn out to
Speaker 5: be like legend.
Speaker 2: Yes, you know, and you.
Speaker 5: Go like, well, what are we doing here? Not here?
Speaker 3: Absolutely well, you're you're You're already a veteran of the
Speaker 3: of the screen when you joined onto Glee.
Speaker 4: I'm just curious, though, what the journey was like to
Speaker 4: get you onto the show. Had you worked with Ryan?
Speaker 4: Was this an audition? What was this?
Speaker 5: You will not believe the story. It is a ridiculously
Speaker 5: strange story. I had been horseback riding with my wife
Speaker 5: on an active volcano in Iceland and we were hit
Speaker 5: by a gigantic wind off the Atlantic Ocean that lifted me,
Speaker 5: this is all true, lifted me and the horse off
Speaker 5: the ground like a tornado carry us, dropped us on
Speaker 5: the side of the mountain. My horse went crazy, started
Speaker 5: running like nuts through me, and the last thing I
Speaker 5: kind of remember was going sideways through the high grass
Speaker 5: on the side of the mountain, and they found me
Speaker 5: in a fetal position on the only dry piece of
Speaker 5: lava in this lava plane. The horseback riding team came,
Speaker 5: how does this get to Glee? I know you're thinking,
Speaker 5: how So I come back to America and the doctor
Speaker 5: tells me that I have a fatal injury and I
Speaker 5: tell him words have a meaning means I'm dead. I'm
Speaker 5: not dead. He says, you want to know why you're alive.
Speaker 5: You're alive because most people have a cervical spine that
Speaker 5: curves like this, but yours is freakish and it's the opposite.
Speaker 5: So your neck just broke, but you didn't. You did
Speaker 5: not break your spinal cords. You could still walk and everything.
Speaker 5: But I had to be absent my poor wife. See,
Speaker 5: this is what happens when you make those wedding vows
Speaker 5: and listen in health. You don't know what that's going
Speaker 5: to mean, and you sign on the dotted line. Annie
Speaker 5: had to do everything for me, She had to help
Speaker 5: me do everything. So anyway, the only thing I could
Speaker 5: do is sit out in my backyard for I think
Speaker 5: they say three months every bone takes three months to heal,
Speaker 5: something like that. Two and a half, three months, three
Speaker 5: months doing nothing. So I'm out there reading, doing nothing.
Speaker 5: And near the end of my three months, when I
Speaker 5: am still unable to do anything, I get a script
Speaker 5: for this show called Lee. My first audition in a
Speaker 5: month's right months and I still have a broken neck.
Speaker 5: So I read the script and my first impression of
Speaker 5: Flee was Oh my god, and all I could say
Speaker 5: was so joyful. The script was so fun, so joyful,
Speaker 5: and I'm thinking, like, I call my I call my agent,
Speaker 5: my manager up and I said, I definitely want to
Speaker 5: meet Ryan and everybody on this and uh, absolutely no quick.
Speaker 5: And I'm thinking, like, how am I going to do that?
Speaker 5: Because I have a damn broken neck, and how much.
Speaker 2: Longer do you have to like heal technically, like I.
Speaker 5: Guess I would say I probably still have kind of
Speaker 5: like maybe three four weeks oft I still have. I
Speaker 5: still have a wild but we don't exactly know when
Speaker 5: Glee is going to start shooting, you know. So I
Speaker 5: think like, okay, now I can't drive, I can't do anything.
Speaker 5: So my wife drives me over to the Glee audition
Speaker 5: and I get out and I have to have a pillow,
Speaker 5: you know, and I have to be very I go
Speaker 5: in and the waiting room you know where, yeah, where
Speaker 5: all the man The waiting room is absolutely empty, and
Speaker 5: I think, like this is so weird because everybody on
Speaker 5: earth is going to want to be on this show.
Speaker 5: So I sit on the little casting couch in there,
Speaker 5: and I think, you know what I'm going to do.
Speaker 5: I'm going to lie. I'm gonna lie. And I take
Speaker 5: my neck brace off and I stuff it under the
Speaker 5: casting couch and I just sit there. I just sit
Speaker 5: there like this waiting. I said, I'm not because it's
Speaker 5: a buzzkill. It is a buzzkill when you go in
Speaker 5: on an audition and your horse let alone, you have
Speaker 5: fallen off a horse and you have a broken nare
Speaker 5: the producers just go like me, next thing, you know.
Speaker 5: So I'm sitting in there twenty minutes. Nothing's happening. This
Speaker 5: is so weird. And then Ryan's assistant comes in and goes, Stephen,
Speaker 5: we are so sorry. It's the wrong day. Ryan is
Speaker 5: doing Niptock today and your audition is tomorrow. And I
Speaker 5: go like, oh my god. Now, so I said, now
Speaker 5: I need to tell you this. So my soul was overburdened.
Speaker 5: I said, let me tell you what happened. And I
Speaker 5: told him the whole story of me on the horse
Speaker 5: and the broken neck. And I pulled out the neck
Speaker 5: brace from underneath the thing and put it on, and
Speaker 5: put it on and said, this is what I was
Speaker 5: going to do today. I was going to I was
Speaker 5: going to lie to everybody. And now You've given me
Speaker 5: a chance not to lie. And so I go back
Speaker 5: out to the car. My wife has to drive me
Speaker 5: home again and has to drive me out the next time.
Speaker 1: Oh my god.
Speaker 5: The next day, I'm out there and I am in
Speaker 5: the room. Now I'm in the room with Ryan and
Speaker 5: all the guy all the producers.
Speaker 2: You have the neck brace on or no, I.
Speaker 5: Have it on? And Ryan goes, you know, I heard
Speaker 5: a very interesting story about you from yesterday. I heard
Speaker 5: I said, yes, right, I was going to lie on
Speaker 5: the first date. And the thing is, guys, I love
Speaker 5: this show so much. I love the script so much.
Speaker 5: What I'm going to do right now, I'm going to
Speaker 5: take this neck brace off, and I'm going to do
Speaker 5: the scene and I'm going to sing a song. And
Speaker 5: if I can't do it, I'm not going to say word.
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna get my neck brace and walk out
Speaker 5: of the room. No harm, no foul. But if I
Speaker 5: can do it, I will stay here and talk to
Speaker 5: you at the end and it won't be a problem.
Speaker 5: I will be able to do it. So I got
Speaker 5: up and I auditioned, I sang my song, and I
Speaker 5: sat there and then at the end everybody was kind
Speaker 5: of laughing, and they were going like, so, I guess
Speaker 5: you're okay, because I go, yes, I am fine, I
Speaker 5: am okay. And now I'm gonna put my neck brace
Speaker 5: on if you don't mind. And I put the neck
Speaker 5: brace back on. And then I found out pretty much
Speaker 5: right away they didn't know when they were going to shoot.
Speaker 5: And uh and at that time, we were we were
Speaker 5: shooting at a school in Burbank. That yeah, we shot
Speaker 5: at the school in Burbank. And then also we went
Speaker 5: to that high school way the hell out in Long
Speaker 5: Features correct career and and uh and that was amazing.
Speaker 5: But but wow, So that was after I was supposedly healed,
Speaker 5: and that it was the broken neck story that probably
Speaker 5: got me on the glee.
Speaker 2: That is that level of commitment. I've never been that
Speaker 2: committed to anything in my life. My ass had been like,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm not going to make it in there.
Speaker 2: Good luck to you, good and this is why you've
Speaker 2: been in hundreds of things.
Speaker 1: Broken neck.
Speaker 5: That was it was just, it was just, it was
Speaker 5: it was a tripp and and uh, I remember going
Speaker 5: out to that place in Burbank. Now, I don't know
Speaker 5: if it freaked you guys out any But the thing
Speaker 5: that amazed me was going to that high school in
Speaker 5: Burbank where we shot the first the first kind of
Speaker 5: show and the and the musical number and all that
Speaker 5: stuff on that stage was they rebuilt that stage and
Speaker 5: auditorium exactly to scale. Unbelievably.
Speaker 2: It was like, what what kind of budget is this?
Speaker 5: It's nuts?
Speaker 2: And we acquired a new sound stage at Paramount to
Speaker 2: build another replica of something we used to film, and
Speaker 2: is like, what that's happening here?
Speaker 5: What what was your experience when we started doing it
Speaker 5: at the beginning and just rehearsing things. What what did
Speaker 5: you you feel like when when you were doing it?
Speaker 5: What was your experience?
Speaker 2: I mean the beginning for us, like when we were
Speaker 2: doing the pilot was obviously as you know you were
Speaker 2: there so different than the rest of the show. But
Speaker 2: I think for us, because we were all so green,
Speaker 2: that it was more about we all bonded really, really hard,
Speaker 2: and then we had weeks of rehearsal and they were
Speaker 2: all trying to figure out what, Yeah, like what is
Speaker 2: the system, what is dance rehearsal? What are the recording sessions?
Speaker 2: Like nobody really knew what was going on, but I
Speaker 2: remember like when you had someone like Ryan who so
Speaker 2: clearly was supported on every level, like by the network
Speaker 2: and studio where I mean, you can tell us if
Speaker 2: you felt this where on set it felt like he
Speaker 2: has as much time. I heard from somebody like, Oh,
Speaker 2: he wants this to be like three weeks or month
Speaker 2: long to film this pilot, and that doesn't normally happen. No,
Speaker 2: and so no, knowing that, in the back of my
Speaker 2: head was like, and Ryan, we trust, so like if
Speaker 2: the execs and the big scary suits are saying he
Speaker 2: can have whatever he wants, then we just need to
Speaker 2: like trust that he knows what he's doing. And clearly,
Speaker 2: you know, they were right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we didn't really know what was what was to come,
Speaker 4: and we didn't know what the formula was going to be,
Speaker 4: so everybody was just kind of there together figuring it out,
Speaker 4: and we just remember hearing inklings of things.
Speaker 1: We also didn't know like how the show was going
Speaker 1: to be received, if we.
Speaker 4: Were going to get Greenland or not, and everybody just
Speaker 4: kept saying like, these executives don't usually show.
Speaker 1: Up on set like this for a pilot.
Speaker 4: These people don't usually start marketing for you know, during
Speaker 4: a pilot or start thinking and strategizing. So it sounded
Speaker 4: very promising to us and we were like, great, we
Speaker 4: just love to see each other again because I moved.
Speaker 4: I went back to New York after we finished filming
Speaker 4: the pilot and waited for two months. But yeah, we
Speaker 4: were there for We came in for four weeks before
Speaker 4: we started filming and started rehearsing Don't Stop Believing and
Speaker 4: figuring out background vocals, figuring out our audition songs, the
Speaker 4: ones that aren't in the pilot, and so it was
Speaker 4: all just like a very collaborative process where Ryan would
Speaker 4: come in and say yes, no hate it, Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 4: that's right.
Speaker 1: Change this. You know, he is so clear in his
Speaker 1: mind exactly what this.
Speaker 4: Was going to be that like in Ryan, we trust.
Speaker 2: Did you feel like for us when we found out
Speaker 2: that Jane was going to be in it and that
Speaker 2: you were going to be in it, people that we
Speaker 2: all knew that were fans of, like that felt like
Speaker 2: a really big deal. Yeah, because people like the two
Speaker 2: of you, who are so good and have been in
Speaker 2: so many any great things that like, oh if they're
Speaker 2: a part of this, like if they think this is good, right,
Speaker 2: being like touch and yeah, very much so, and I
Speaker 2: felt like, oh, that's also really like I can brag
Speaker 2: about being on the same show as you or as
Speaker 2: you know, as Jane, because like everybody loves you. So
Speaker 2: it was one of those things like guess who else
Speaker 2: is in the show? Like how crazy is that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, the thing I felt, you know, one of the
Speaker 5: benefits of always just trying to work and so like
Speaker 5: I did summer Stock outside of Woodstock, New York when
Speaker 5: I was twenty years old, and we had some very
Speaker 5: talented people from New York City that came out to
Speaker 5: do musicals there, and we had one week to rehearse
Speaker 5: a show and then you put it up and you
Speaker 5: do it for two weeks while you're rehearsing the next show,
Speaker 5: and everybody is working on their songs, everybody is working
Speaker 5: on their dances, everybody is working on their speeches from
Speaker 5: Midsummer Night's Dream, walking Walking through the And that was
Speaker 5: the feeling I had of Glee at the beginning, working
Speaker 5: on that pipe. Everybody and every corner was working on
Speaker 5: everything they were doing, yes, because it was not like
Speaker 5: doing an LA show. It was not like doing it.
Speaker 5: It was like doing theater and doing New York Theater, Yes,
Speaker 5: not La Theater. It was like it was like everybody
Speaker 5: was working on their stuff every second.
Speaker 1: You're so right, Ye're so right.
Speaker 2: I never even thought about it because we were so
Speaker 2: used to it, like when we were at those schools.
Speaker 2: Even later on in the seasons, when you were filming
Speaker 2: at other high schools, we were if someone was filming
Speaker 2: in the auditorium, we were on the football field having
Speaker 2: dance or some other or somebody's being bussed off to
Speaker 2: go record. It never stopped. We were all just something
Speaker 2: was happening all the time.
Speaker 1: And did you sing for your audition?
Speaker 5: Oh? You know, I think I just did some stupid
Speaker 5: song I had just done in Talks and Box. Do
Speaker 5: you know that Fernanda and Sullivan musical, you know's the
Speaker 5: bag he can on the grid? I'll say, he cant
Speaker 5: that and close my eyes something like that, something that
Speaker 5: was not of Glee caliber, and and and the but
Speaker 5: it was, it was good enough.
Speaker 2: It was perfect, Oh yeah for.
Speaker 5: Me to be Sandy Ryerson. And but the thing was,
Speaker 5: there was no dead weight on that show. Everybody, nobody
Speaker 5: was lazy. Everybody was trying to do their best. And
Speaker 5: it's like a very rare time where you know, you
Speaker 5: experience everybody saying I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready, as
Speaker 5: opposed to could you give me another twenty minutes here
Speaker 5: having a nap in my dressing room, and I will, yeah,
Speaker 5: when I'm ready.
Speaker 2: That's very true.
Speaker 1: There's no time for naps now when you're all.
Speaker 2: So excited because it even like, you know, I think
Speaker 2: it means a lot hearing someone like you who like
Speaker 2: read the script and you were excited from the moment
Speaker 2: you read it, where even with a broken neck, you're like,
Speaker 2: I got to figure out how to get in there,
Speaker 2: you know. I think if that doesn't convince you how
Speaker 2: we all felt about reading it, nothing will, because I
Speaker 2: think we all had a very similar, you know, reaction
Speaker 2: to it. Because it's so rare you get to do
Speaker 2: something that piques your all your interests like this does,
Speaker 2: and that everybody is willing to just go one hundred
Speaker 2: percent from day one, even into the unknown whatever it
Speaker 2: is we're doing, and to.
Speaker 5: Go full circle in terms of the circle of catastrophe.
Speaker 5: My last show on Klee, I had just finished having
Speaker 5: drum roll open heart surgery. Now three years after the
Speaker 5: broken neck, I had to have a triple bypassed open
Speaker 5: heart surgery. So anyway, the word kind of got out
Speaker 5: and different people reached out and gave me shows. And
Speaker 5: so the guy said, Lee said, We've written the show
Speaker 5: for you to do to make sure I kept my
Speaker 5: insurance and that because I can do it. The show
Speaker 5: the last show I did, and I and was in
Speaker 5: detention hall and I said, whatever you people do, I've
Speaker 5: just had surgery. I'm cut in two. Yeah, I'm being
Speaker 5: held together by staples. Do not have me dance because
Speaker 5: I'm not a dancer anyway, And they had me dance
Speaker 5: in detention hall and so I'm like, you know, in
Speaker 5: front of the in front of the blackboard.
Speaker 1: It was stop.
Speaker 5: But I uh take my hat off to uh the
Speaker 5: guys at Community. They gave me a show and so
Speaker 5: sweet and Ryan gave me a show right after Community,
Speaker 5: and I'm going like, god, thank you, thank you, thank you,
Speaker 5: thank you guys so much. It was wonderful.
Speaker 4: It was one that's so great, Oh my gosh, because
Speaker 4: you're enjoyable work with you know what. Now, now, you
Speaker 4: did join a Fellas very early on in this in
Speaker 4: the series. What was that like for you? Were you
Speaker 4: excited to join af of fellas with those guys. What
Speaker 4: was that experience?
Speaker 5: Like, I was working with some very talented people, and
Speaker 5: I remember, uh doing those dance rehearsals for a cafellas
Speaker 5: that was like really ridiculous, and doing it for Ryan. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, I was a particularly bad dancer, and and
Speaker 5: you know I was.
Speaker 2: You weren't the only particularly bad dancer.
Speaker 5: I was over ampt and and Ryan was just laughing
Speaker 5: his head off and he's going like, Okay, that's really terrible. Okay,
Speaker 5: that's really but you're right, You're right, you know he
Speaker 5: was like, yes, no, totally. But the guys could sing
Speaker 5: so well. I felt like, well, that's fine. All I
Speaker 5: have to do is kind of just blend in and
Speaker 5: kind of hide in it behind those guys.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: That's when I met Josh.
Speaker 2: Yes, and you gave us one of the most famous
Speaker 2: lines in ever.
Speaker 5: Who says Josh and Josh and I this is this
Speaker 5: is not so. I meet Josh out in Pasadena or whatever,
Speaker 5: and he was saying like, I'm not used to acting
Speaker 5: and doing this kind of thing, and I'm kind of
Speaker 5: nervous about the camera, the whole camera thing. And I'm
Speaker 5: going like, you gotta be kidding. I said, you don't
Speaker 5: have to worry about the camera thing at all because
Speaker 5: he's so brilliant. And it's just like I said, you know,
Speaker 5: if you make any mistake of anything at all, they
Speaker 5: just do it again.
Speaker 6: You know.
Speaker 5: It's not like you know, you're you're juggling glass spheres
Speaker 5: or something.
Speaker 2: He can perform live in front of an arena full
Speaker 2: of people.
Speaker 5: But you know, wow, god, but he what what? What
Speaker 5: a guy? What a guy? That was? That was amazing?
Speaker 5: That was amazing.
Speaker 2: Did you have any idea when you came on originally
Speaker 2: for the pilot, because Sandy Ryerson left quite the impression certainly?
Speaker 2: Did you know that you know if the show got
Speaker 2: picked up that Ryan and co. Wanted to have you
Speaker 2: back for more or was it sort of the show
Speaker 2: gets picked up and they're writing these episodes and like, hey,
Speaker 2: actually can you come back again and again and again?
Speaker 5: Yeah? Well no, you know you never know that kind
Speaker 5: of stuff. So I I had at that point. I
Speaker 5: had had enough experience to know like, well, you do
Speaker 5: the pilot and that's great, and then if if you
Speaker 5: do other shows, that's even better. But but you never
Speaker 5: know that kind of thing. And once once you shoot
Speaker 5: a pilot, A lot of other four verses enter into
Speaker 5: the creation of a series as to the direction they
Speaker 5: want to go with certain ideas and certain directions, and
Speaker 5: so certain characters are elevated, other characters vanished, new characters
Speaker 5: are created, and with glee. They certainly did that.
Speaker 2: They did, oh they I.
Speaker 5: Just was so happy that the number of times I
Speaker 5: as music teacher, you know, I got to sit in
Speaker 5: the audience and listen to everybody's sing Oh God, what
Speaker 5: a great group of people.
Speaker 1: Truly.
Speaker 4: Now, Sandy had some really insane moments, and I'm curious
Speaker 4: to hear if you are ever concerned by any of
Speaker 4: your storylines or any of the things that you did,
Speaker 4: like your doll your home of dolls.
Speaker 1: In your robes and tea. I have to know, I just.
Speaker 5: Find those things delightful, you know, I just find them
Speaker 5: so funny, and there's so much humor buried in that,
Speaker 5: you know, it's so funny. And they don't tell you
Speaker 5: that stuff beforehand, right because you know, if you're doing
Speaker 5: a character in a kind of Stanislavsky way, and they
Speaker 5: were saying, like, well, one thing you should know about
Speaker 5: who you are, you have a dollhouse at home, and
Speaker 5: you you you played with Dolph, you know you would
Speaker 5: kind of put something together, but in television they just
Speaker 5: throw that at you as a surprise. But I was
Speaker 5: just I was kind of delighted by everything. And oh,
Speaker 5: I guess you and Jane to ask me. What Jane
Speaker 5: and I would do when we weren't shooting is we
Speaker 5: would sit outside the stage and tell each other theater stories,
Speaker 5: amazing about nightmares she went through and nightmares I went through,
Speaker 5: and it was also funny, and we just were sitting
Speaker 5: there just laughing, and then they call us on stage
Speaker 5: and then you know, it's a whole other thing. And
Speaker 5: you know, one of the lasting impressions I have is Corey.
Speaker 5: You know Corey and who was absolutely one of my
Speaker 5: favorite people on the set, and always watching Corey working
Speaker 5: so hard to get his dance right and get his
Speaker 5: thing right, usually right outside my trailer. He was out
Speaker 5: there and he was working on things.
Speaker 4: So yeah, yeah, everybody who comes on the show always
Speaker 4: like cannot help themselves. But you mentioned how kind Corey was,
Speaker 4: how hard of a worker he was, how he went
Speaker 4: out of his way to make them feel at home.
Speaker 4: He really was just our silent leader. Yeah, and like
Speaker 4: so beloved by everybody.
Speaker 5: So beloved. And I'll tell you it was one of
Speaker 5: the in in a lot of businesses, you encounter a
Speaker 5: lot of tragedy, and in this particular business, you encounter
Speaker 5: so many people and you have no idea how many
Speaker 5: are living on the edge. But it was one one
Speaker 5: horrible piece of news that that so had me in
Speaker 5: tears because because he he was such a dear, dear,
Speaker 5: dear person, and.
Speaker 6: Uh, I was I was just in Vancouver when I heard,
Speaker 6: and I'm thinking, like god, you mean he could have
Speaker 6: been right here and I didn't know it, you know,
Speaker 6: it was Yeah, it was terrible.
Speaker 2: Yeah really, And it feels worse too when you know
Speaker 2: somebody that deeply you know how wonderful they are, that
Speaker 2: it's always just shocking.
Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it.
Speaker 2: Makes no sense. But I love that like you, you,
Speaker 2: like so many others you know, echoed the same sentiments
Speaker 2: about him, because it's it's nice that we all get
Speaker 2: to share that and got to have that time with
Speaker 2: him and be able to like, you know, share those
Speaker 2: memories with other people because it's one of those things
Speaker 2: where like, no, he really was just the best, and
Speaker 2: everybody should should know that yeah, yeah, sweet wonderful guy.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm, very You've been in so many iconic things.
Speaker 1: I'm curious like when people approach you fans, is it
Speaker 1: for something? Is it is it more one thing than
Speaker 1: the other? Is it Glee? Is it Groundhog Day?
Speaker 4: Like do you have one that's like I always get
Speaker 4: recognized or is it just that people know you because
Speaker 4: you've been in literally everything?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Now, now it kind of depends on cable because everybody watches,
Speaker 5: so I could tell recently everyone goes like, oh my god,
Speaker 5: Stu Begs Californication And I'm going like, why why is
Speaker 5: everybody coming up to me saying Stu Beggs? And then
Speaker 5: I'd look on my thing and it's back on cable again.
Speaker 5: Right in Californication. I was on the I was just
Speaker 5: in Dallas this weekend, and on the flight back, the
Speaker 5: guy said, you know, you were Jack Barker in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 5: The guy next to me, I go, right, right, right,
Speaker 5: Then the guy crossway, No, it's Stu Beggs and then
Speaker 5: you leave, Oh it's Ned Ryerson. So it's like, now,
Speaker 5: after all this time, their favorite characters people have. That's
Speaker 5: funny and whether Bolberg's or one day at a time,
Speaker 5: their favorite characters, people.
Speaker 1: Have and everything everything I've.
Speaker 5: Reached kind of the point of saturation. And I'm lucky.
Speaker 5: I'm lucky in that a lot of the roles were
Speaker 5: in really good projects, cause you could have a lot
Speaker 5: of roles in really terrible projects. Something like Lee is
Speaker 5: a classic project, or certainly Goldberg's is amazing one day
Speaker 5: to time, I mean, lots of good projects. So that's
Speaker 5: but a lot of reason why that happened was location, location, location,
Speaker 5: So at Sony Studios, it is difficult to get the
Speaker 5: approval of the boss. But when the president of Sony
Speaker 5: and the head casting at Sony go like you're okay,
Speaker 5: then everything that comes in at Sony it's it's less
Speaker 5: work for them to say, Stephen, as soon as you
Speaker 5: finish Goldbergs, why don't you run over there? And why
Speaker 5: don't you go over and do uh doctor that sense,
Speaker 5: do the Doctor Ken show. We'll get apart for you.
Speaker 5: It just and they just keep you running around like
Speaker 5: they did in the thirties, you know, So you just
Speaker 5: go around and do like this show, this show, this show,
Speaker 5: all at the same state studio, and they arrange your
Speaker 5: scheduled where you do five different things. Wow, but that
Speaker 5: was just location. Look, it was just companion for them.
Speaker 2: A very very talent.
Speaker 5: They know who I am.
Speaker 1: They know you're capable of right, right.
Speaker 5: Right, kind of auditioned on screen for them a number
Speaker 5: of times, so.
Speaker 2: You're right, and at that point they should be able
Speaker 2: to just be like, can you do this? You don't
Speaker 2: have to audition, come up just like you know, like
Speaker 2: you know what I could do. You've seen me and everything.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's well and also being on like for you know,
Speaker 4: most recently with Michael Hitchcock two on Nobody Wants This.
Speaker 4: It's like another really big hit that everybody's talking about,
Speaker 4: which is not always so common in this day and
Speaker 4: age because there's so much content now that for something
Speaker 4: to hit like that and for you to be on
Speaker 4: another show that's you know, wildly popular like that.
Speaker 5: We had no idea what was going on because the
Speaker 5: show didn't have a title. It was called untitled Aaron
Speaker 5: Foster Project. And so so I'm going like okay, and
Speaker 5: then they always kept reading. So they My agent called
Speaker 5: me up and said, Stephen, you know they're doing this
Speaker 5: this show and they have a rabbi, and I think
Speaker 5: you have a scene. Could you go in and do
Speaker 5: a Rabbi scene for them? It's just I go sure, sure.
Speaker 5: So they send me the stuff and I'm reading it
Speaker 5: and I'm going like, yeah, okay, well it's actually two scenes,
Speaker 5: but okay, two scenes in two days. Okay. And then
Speaker 5: they go like, oh, and you're on next week too,
Speaker 5: and I go, oh my god, okay, okay, well well
Speaker 5: that script yeah yeah, yeah, and wow. They had no title,
Speaker 5: and so we had no idea what this show was
Speaker 5: going to be like or whether it was good or
Speaker 5: bad or indifferent. And after about three months or so
Speaker 5: after we had finished shooting it, my agent called up says,
Speaker 5: they finally have a title for it. I go, what
Speaker 5: nobody wants this? Could you have a worst title? I mean,
Speaker 5: can you imagine the critics going.
Speaker 1: Like nobody right? You're giving it to them?
Speaker 2: Silver.
Speaker 1: It was great, really, it was.
Speaker 5: I mean, we all, you know, Kristen played my daughter
Speaker 5: on another show, so there's all kinds of you know,
Speaker 5: she on Heroes, she was my daughter. That's where I
Speaker 5: met her, And I'm going like, what was the genetic
Speaker 5: disposition of my wife to where me and her created you?
Speaker 5: I mean, my God.
Speaker 2: Is right before Glee and I remember when you got
Speaker 2: on like yes.
Speaker 1: Jen, yeah, the whole thing.
Speaker 5: But that show turned out to be nobody wants this
Speaker 5: is a fabs like a show. And I didn't know
Speaker 5: until I went into Looping. And you know, you go
Speaker 5: into Looping and they show you a bit of the
Speaker 5: scene and I'm watching, I'm.
Speaker 1: Going, oh, this is good. Yeah, yeah, give me more.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you never know, you never know.
Speaker 2: I think it's so impressive. And we've talked to some
Speaker 2: other actors who've been in a lot of shows and
Speaker 2: how like you just pop in for two scenes here,
Speaker 2: come back and you don't even know what the show is.
Speaker 2: But the skill to be able to do that, like
Speaker 2: the muscle, to be able to just like pop in
Speaker 2: do your thing that fits in the tone with that
Speaker 2: show is so impressive. And you continue to do that,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 5: You learn lessons along the way. One of the lessons
Speaker 5: Harold Ramos taught me on Groundhougs because I was a
Speaker 5: little nervous that I was overplaying the part a little bit,
Speaker 5: you know, overplaying it, and Harold Ramis is Stephen, you know,
Speaker 5: the Schlamiel and the Schlamazl.
Speaker 2: And excuse me, he says, yeah, the Jewish.
Speaker 5: Jewish comedy the Schlamiel and the Schlamazel. The Schlamiel is
Speaker 5: the guy who always spills the soup. He always is shaking,
Speaker 5: you know, yep, and always dropping the soda can. The
Speaker 5: Schlamazel is the guy who always gets stuff spilled on him.
Speaker 5: He says, So when you are in this scene in
Speaker 5: Groundhog Day, you are the Schlamiel. Bill is the Schlamazel.
Speaker 5: So Bill has to be the world. He has to
Speaker 5: play it straight. You could do whatever you want now.
Speaker 5: When they call me in last second, it's usually for
Speaker 5: a comedy, And I think am I the Schlamiel or
Speaker 5: the Slamazel in terms of nobody wants this? I am
Speaker 5: the world, which is a much easier role to play.
Speaker 5: I mean, you just have to carry the weight of
Speaker 5: the normal into it to where the other people can
Speaker 5: play off of that. But brilliant, you just have this
Speaker 5: shorthand of going like what what am I on this show?
Speaker 1: The vessel? Right right?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, wow, some good advice right there.
Speaker 4: Well, because you've been on so many things, in so
Speaker 4: many things in your career is so wildly extensive, I'm
Speaker 4: curious like what it is now? What your mindset is
Speaker 4: when you're looking to work, now, are you just excited
Speaker 4: to work on anything? Are you looking for things specific?
Speaker 4: Or I'm just like what is it? When project come
Speaker 4: to you?
Speaker 5: All right, I'm hoping it's a good show. First of all,
Speaker 5: like the script. I read the script, and if the
Speaker 5: script is good, I like it. That's another thing. And
Speaker 5: then then after you do it, you hope it's a
Speaker 5: good cast. So nobody wants this, right Craig. You know,
Speaker 5: I read the script, I go like, well, this is good,
Speaker 5: and then you see the cast you go, oh, well
Speaker 5: this is good. The same thing with Glee. You know,
Speaker 5: I read the script and I go like, I have
Speaker 5: to be in the show. And then you say the
Speaker 5: people who were in it, and you'd be like, oh
Speaker 5: my god, yeah, yes, the most talented group of people
Speaker 5: in the world. You know, it is so amazing to
Speaker 5: act with you guys, and to watch everybody perform was amazing.
Speaker 5: So that's the first thing. It has to have a
Speaker 5: good script. And then if if the cast, especially if
Speaker 5: the cast is like again, I'll go back to the
Speaker 5: Glee cast that aren't afraid to work, and like I,
Speaker 5: nobody wants this. Everybody was eager to work, not happy
Speaker 5: to be resting. Everybody's let's go, let's do this, Let's
Speaker 5: do this again, let's get everybody was happy to be
Speaker 5: engaged in the process of doing it.
Speaker 2: That that energy is so necessary. Yeah, feed off each
Speaker 2: other's It feels like, I imagine it's reminiscent in a
Speaker 2: way of Summer Stock too. You're like, it's a minor
Speaker 2: miracle these things get made, yes, right, Like it takes
Speaker 2: everybody doing their little part in every single department to
Speaker 2: pull each other together at the end of the day
Speaker 2: to just get this thing done.
Speaker 5: Yep, this horrible summer stock story. Horrible summer stock story.
Speaker 5: So I was playing bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream and
Speaker 5: my girlfriend from Texas came up and she ended up
Speaker 5: being an apprentice in the group of people, and we
Speaker 5: were falling in love, you know how that happens. And
Speaker 5: we were falling in love, and I was playing bottom,
Speaker 5: and I kept waking up. The schedule was so difficult.
Speaker 5: I kept waking up on stage in the middle of
Speaker 5: the night rehearsing, wearing some of my clothes, some of
Speaker 5: my costume, and some of my pajamas. So I'd wake
Speaker 5: up at two or three in the morning on stage.
Speaker 5: The theater is completely dark, completely dark, and I am
Speaker 5: rehearsing bottoms dream or something. So I go to Beth
Speaker 5: and I said, look, I think I'm sleepwalking. Could you
Speaker 5: could you wake me up? I don't want to end
Speaker 5: up on stage again in the middle of the night
Speaker 5: with half my clothes on and half my clothes off,
Speaker 5: because that means I had to get out of the bed,
Speaker 5: go down to the bar, go down into the costume room,
Speaker 5: put on my costume. But in my sleep I can't
Speaker 5: button buttons or do belts. And so I said, Baby,
Speaker 5: please just make sure I stay in bed tonight, please.
Speaker 5: So I wake up on stage. The clock on the
Speaker 5: side of the wall says three point thirty in the morning.
Speaker 5: I'm standing there in my bottom out that my pants
Speaker 5: are at my ankles because I can't fasten my pants.
Speaker 5: I have my doublet and of this, and Beth is
Speaker 5: sitting in the audience and she said, I said, Baby,
Speaker 5: this wasn't the deal.
Speaker 2: The deal was.
Speaker 5: Supposed to And she said I had to see it.
Speaker 5: I had to see if it was true, and I
Speaker 5: had to see when you woke up what you would do.
Speaker 5: And so it is true. You are sleep talking, you know,
Speaker 5: you know, it's just this is so it's all so crazy.
Speaker 5: It's also crazy.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Wow did you start in theaters? Like, how did you
Speaker 2: get into that in the first place.
Speaker 5: I got into theater because I was having a horrible
Speaker 5: experience in college. I had a teacher in college who
Speaker 5: was just trying to destroy me, an acting teacher. She
Speaker 5: was the new acting teacher, and she hated me. And
Speaker 5: so I grew up in a in an area of
Speaker 5: Dallas where I was used to believes as a child.
Speaker 5: I knew what they looked like and I knew how
Speaker 5: they act that.
Speaker 2: Where Dallas are you from originally? Oh, Cliff, I'm from Plano.
Speaker 5: Oh well you're from Plano.
Speaker 2: I was from the east side. I was not from
Speaker 2: the west side.
Speaker 5: In the old days, Plano where all the fancy people live.
Speaker 5: And now it's like Addison or North Addison or now
Speaker 5: people moved away because everybody moved to Plano because it
Speaker 5: was the Beverly Hills of Dallas, not when I was there. Yeah,
Speaker 5: but what was I talking about?
Speaker 1: The teachers?
Speaker 5: Terrible teachers.
Speaker 1: Terrible teacher.
Speaker 5: You know, when I was a sophomore is when you
Speaker 5: got brought into the professional Acting curriculum. She voted against me.
Speaker 5: So I was not in the professional acting curriculum, which
Speaker 5: means I could not take acting classes. I could take
Speaker 5: theater history, I could do all that other kind, but
Speaker 5: not acting classes. So I go like, okay, this is crazy.
Speaker 5: So what I did was I went to my theater
Speaker 5: history teacher, who was understood and my junior year. I said, well,
Speaker 5: you may know I have this teacher that's and he goes, yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 5: I said, can I take the graduate exam now with
Speaker 5: you if you give it to me, because you had
Speaker 5: to have two parts, you had to have a written
Speaker 5: exam to graduate, and and I said, you have to
Speaker 5: give me the exam, but not tell anyone that you're
Speaker 5: giving it to me, and you keep the exam and
Speaker 5: if I need it my senior year, you'll bring it
Speaker 5: to me. And so I took the exam like my
Speaker 5: junior year, my graduate exam, and sure enough, a week
Speaker 5: before the end of school my senior year, my advisor
Speaker 5: came and said, we're so sorry, you're not going to
Speaker 5: be able to graduate. Joan Potter has just given you
Speaker 5: a second unsatisfactory critique, so you won't be able to
Speaker 5: take the graduate exam and I said, well, I already
Speaker 5: took it, and he said, well, that's impossible, because we
Speaker 5: give it next week. See she was waiting to the
Speaker 5: very end like a bully would do crazy. And I said, no, no,
Speaker 5: I took it last year with Tony Graham White, and
Speaker 5: theater has called him up. And so Hobb did. And
Speaker 5: Tony came up with a sealed envelope with my test
Speaker 5: in it, opened it up in front of hopgood created it.
Speaker 5: I made an a on it, and then Tony saluted
Speaker 5: me and walked out of the room. And I had
Speaker 5: gotten my equity when they stopped casting me at SMU
Speaker 5: in Anything. I got my equity card at the local
Speaker 5: Equity Theater in Dallas, and I was doing musicals in Dallas.
Speaker 5: I did Jesus and Godspell, I did, I did all
Speaker 5: you know, and I was like a star. And that
Speaker 5: really made the teacher hate me. And when I did
Speaker 5: my first Broadway show in New York, she came backstage
Speaker 5: to my dressing rooms absolutely and said you're still no good. Well,
Speaker 5: you're still no good? And I said yeah, and you
Speaker 5: just paid one hundred and twenty dollars to see me.
Speaker 2: Wow, what a beast, a beast, a miserable person.
Speaker 5: I heard that that was just her. Oh and at
Speaker 5: the next school she went to, she did this, you know, yeah, fictions, bitter,
Speaker 5: bitter better.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: Yeah. So what I did was I always just went
Speaker 5: my own course. I got my equity card, I got
Speaker 5: my SAG card, and I just always just tried to work.
Speaker 5: Power is Yeah, you haven't stopped you Well yeah, not
Speaker 5: not not lately.
Speaker 2: Well, it's weird out there.
Speaker 5: It's weird.
Speaker 1: It's a weird time. We I mean, we could talk
Speaker 1: to you all day.
Speaker 4: I have a question for you before we forget to
Speaker 4: ask because I don't want and we always ask everybody
Speaker 4: on our show who has been a part of Glee
Speaker 4: in some respect, what is the feeling that Glee leaves
Speaker 4: you with?
Speaker 5: Jay? Oh? Why still to this day, Still, to this day,
Speaker 5: I think of Glee and I'm filled with joy, both
Speaker 5: the process of working on it all you guys and
Speaker 5: everybody I met on Glee remarkable, remarkable people, Uh, Jane, Corey,
Speaker 5: Matt and everybody, just Leah, everybody. I just had such
Speaker 5: a great experience with everybody, and it was a unique experience,
Speaker 5: nothing like it before and nothing like it since. And
Speaker 5: uh that was that was my overall Wow.
Speaker 4: It's a big statement that it's like nothing you've worked on,
Speaker 4: because you.
Speaker 5: You know, well, it is joy always when I think
Speaker 5: of it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So we're sad we didn't get to work with
Speaker 4: you more. We loved watching.
Speaker 5: Because you guys had talent. I was just doing.
Speaker 2: Jokes, you guys know the fun yea, every time was like.
Speaker 4: Oh ship double all the house of dolls, My goodness, Yeah,
Speaker 4: it was. No, it was always such a joy to
Speaker 4: see you pop on the screen and to rewatch it
Speaker 4: now and watch it and you're just so wonderful on
Speaker 4: the show, and seeing you continually working makes us so happy.
Speaker 1: And to see you, you.
Speaker 4: Know, sharing your talents with other shows and other uh,
Speaker 4: other people. It's just wonderful, so grateful that you came
Speaker 4: on and shared all those wild stories, and.
Speaker 2: We were so lucky to have you, you know, to
Speaker 2: be on the same set, to be on the same
Speaker 2: show as you. It meant a lot to us, even
Speaker 2: if we didn't get to work together all the time. Yes,
Speaker 2: it means a lot to us that you're here now
Speaker 2: gracing us with your presence. So thank you so much
Speaker 2: for taking the time to reminisce.
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolute pleasure. It's a joy to me to do it,
Speaker 5: to go back to Gleeville.
Speaker 1: I know, I know.
Speaker 2: It was so good to see Stephen, seriously, thank you
Speaker 2: so much.
Speaker 5: Absolutely good joy, good to see you.
Speaker 1: Good, good to see Stephen, thank you.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh what it's icon Jenna, And I mean.
Speaker 4: Really like the resume is actually insane, and the experience
Speaker 4: he's had and still so joyful if you taking that one.
Speaker 4: So happy about the craft, so happy about the work
Speaker 4: he does and the way he approaches it. It's really
Speaker 4: inspiring for somebody you know, who's starting out or for
Speaker 4: us even, but it's I just still can't believe he
Speaker 4: was on our show, and how funny and brilliant is
Speaker 4: every time he stepped on the screen, like.
Speaker 2: It was like surreal. Oh thank god, you know.
Speaker 5: Thank god.
Speaker 2: I love hearing all these stories too. One of the
Speaker 2: besides like doing the work of like being on a
Speaker 2: set talking to people who have worked a lot and
Speaker 2: hearing the stories and their experiences is just the greatest thing.
Speaker 2: Because it's a small industry and you are, you know,
Speaker 2: like the whole six degrees of separation with Kevin Bacon,
Speaker 2: it's like it's very much real and probably even less
Speaker 2: for anybody you can imagine. And the stories that like
Speaker 2: we've gotten to here, and like the idea of he
Speaker 2: and Jane like swapping stories outside stages.
Speaker 1: Just so cut the dream.
Speaker 4: They also just He's just a joy, a pleasure to
Speaker 4: work with, Like everybody on that show is just happy
Speaker 4: to be there, willing to work, and like especially the
Speaker 4: adults were such becons for us to see how they
Speaker 4: handled being on set all the time, like Michael Malley
Speaker 4: and Romy and Jane and like everybody was just like, oh,
Speaker 4: this is how you do it. Like you you follow
Speaker 4: along with their manner and etiquette on set because they've
Speaker 4: been working forever. There's something that gets them, you know.
Speaker 4: And it's not just talent, it's it's.
Speaker 2: No and there's never any sort of pretense with them.
Speaker 2: They're now, they're grateful for the work, they care about it,
Speaker 2: they think deeply about it, and they're also just so
Speaker 2: much fun and joyful to be around.
Speaker 1: I just want him to just tell his stories all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: Well, Steven Tailawski, we are so honored that you came
Speaker 1: on the show and talked about your Glee experience and
Speaker 1: your wild Glee audition. I can't. I also can't believe
Speaker 1: that he had to like audition at all, but like.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm grateful it sounds was audition.
Speaker 4: Yeah, with their broken neck, nobody is beating him.
Speaker 2: How does he even have to audition for things?
Speaker 1: That's the thing is, he's just offer John.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I just sounds like he doesn't really have to
Speaker 2: audition for things.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, not really, not really. Well anyway, I
Speaker 4: hope you guys enjoyed that. That's Stephen Tablowski, that's Sammy Ryerson.
Speaker 2: Wow, and that is what you really missed. Thanks for listening,
Speaker 2: and follow us on Instagram at and that's what you
Speaker 2: really miss pod. Make sure to write us a review
Speaker 2: and leave us five stars. See you next time.