Speaker 1: I am all in, Kiss you, I am all in
Speaker 1: with Scott Patterson and I Heart Radio podcast. Hey Everybody,
Speaker 1: Scott Patterson, I am all in Podcast one eleven productions,
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. We are here with Jason Kravitz, who
Speaker 1: appeared as Dwight in season three episode five eight o'clock
Speaker 1: at the Oasis. He was the uh, the new neighbor
Speaker 1: across the street who came over and asked Laurelai to
Speaker 1: uh water his lawn and then mow his lawn and
Speaker 1: then go inside and all kinds of things. Um. Very
Speaker 1: memorable character. Um. And Jason has an extraordinarily um uh
Speaker 1: long and distinguished resume. And we'll get into that later,
Speaker 1: but let's get into the Gilmore stuff. Jason, thanks for
Speaker 1: coming on. Welcome. Good to meet you, pleasure. Hey, good
Speaker 1: to meet you too. And we thoroughly enjoyed all of us. Uh,
Speaker 1: the team enjoyed your performance. We were, we were. It
Speaker 1: was side splitting funny. Um. And that was the only
Speaker 1: episode of Girl Gilmore Girls you did. But it's so memorable.
Speaker 1: How did you get the role? This is an audition
Speaker 1: for a role in you know, the same way you
Speaker 1: get a lot of jobs in this business. Your agents
Speaker 1: put you up for a role, your audition and hopefully
Speaker 1: you get the part. This kiss it worked out good,
Speaker 1: good good. Um we actually would have loved to have
Speaker 1: seen more of you. Um ah. So what do you
Speaker 1: remember about being on set? Oh? Well, I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: working with Lauren, who was really nice. I enjoyed working
Speaker 1: with her a lot. And I remember immediately first thing
Speaker 1: as I got onto the set, I was told the
Speaker 1: script supervisor, uh, fast, fast for fast, the fastness of work,
Speaker 1: don't out of work, don't do anything okay, And the
Speaker 1: first take I did, I do remember. I believe I
Speaker 1: the line had sometimes you're forgetting me. I don't remember
Speaker 1: the line exactly, but it was something about and I
Speaker 1: turned the corner and there it was. And I believe
Speaker 1: I said, and I turned the corner and boom, there
Speaker 1: it was, and I cut no boom, do not add beat,
Speaker 1: do not at a sentence, do not at a clap.
Speaker 1: Now that it's got to be very specifical. Of course,
Speaker 1: that's how Amy Shumpalasina rights her stuff, and I totally
Speaker 1: respect that. I just had no idea until I was
Speaker 1: on the set that that was in need case. So
Speaker 1: that's my that's my overarching memory and also the fact
Speaker 1: that you know, being in stars Holland and being around
Speaker 1: that set was really phenomenal. Actually, it's a nice place
Speaker 1: to be. It was a nice place to go to work.
Speaker 1: It was it was great. It was great for the
Speaker 1: for the time I was there. Um, I have a
Speaker 1: fun Stars Hollow story though if I'm Gilmore story that
Speaker 1: will come into play with people who know this this
Speaker 1: actress from other Amy Shrump things and the second Uh
Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls incarnation. When I a few years after I
Speaker 1: did this episode, I was in l A doing a
Speaker 1: pre Broadway run of a musical called The Drowsy Shop
Speaker 1: Grow and The Drowsy Shop Erne starred. Uh Stutton Foster,
Speaker 1: of course at that time, was that Tony Award winner
Speaker 1: for thirty Modern Millie and she also eventually was on
Speaker 1: the lead on Bun Headsman the next show, and then
Speaker 1: appeared in Gilmore Girls The Red Boot. So Uh, but
Speaker 1: she was not She was just a big Gilmore Girls
Speaker 1: fan at the time. And I was staying with you.
Speaker 1: We're all staying in the same area, and I was
Speaker 1: still in touch with the people of Gilmore Roles, especially
Speaker 1: one of the casting directors Uh and Uh I said
Speaker 1: to Sutton deep do you want to go on set?
Speaker 1: And I'm sure we can get on in the warder lot.
Speaker 1: I just called my you know, call my friend Jamie
Speaker 1: who is Jimmy want the casting directors and she said,
Speaker 1: I'd love that. So I got to bring Sutton Foster
Speaker 1: two Stars Hollow and she I've never seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: People look at she looked at the world around her
Speaker 1: the way that people look at her now. Who are
Speaker 1: fans of fun? Heads? Who are fun who are who
Speaker 1: are broad in musical fans? Um. She was really dumb
Speaker 1: struck by the whole thing. And she got to meet
Speaker 1: Lauren and she was really nervous, and it was just
Speaker 1: one of those really magical moments to be in that
Speaker 1: in that place with somebody who was such a huge
Speaker 1: fan of the show. Yeah, that's uh yeah it it
Speaker 1: was overwhelming from me and I was in the cast,
Speaker 1: so I know what you're talking about. Um. Um. So
Speaker 1: the tone and the banter that you had with with
Speaker 1: with Lauren, it was it was really really perfect. How
Speaker 1: much did you get to rehearse that with her before
Speaker 1: you would shoot? Very little? We shot pretty quick because
Speaker 1: you know, they moved pretty fast and upset, and uh,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, having seen the show, you knew
Speaker 1: exactly what to expect in the way of a rhythm.
Speaker 1: Um So, even though I had my little, you know,
Speaker 1: mistake earlier, it was easy with Lauren, who was such
Speaker 1: a professional in the situation. It was very accepted and
Speaker 1: we just kind of take it off very quickly, so
Speaker 1: it was very little rehearsal and just kind of swam
Speaker 1: right into it. Do you get recognized as Dwight when
Speaker 1: you're out in public? I really do. And the first
Speaker 1: time that happened to me, I had forgotten the name
Speaker 1: of my character. You know. It was years and years later,
Speaker 1: and even just it happened about four years ago in
Speaker 1: New York City. I was going through Macy's and somebody
Speaker 1: who was like temporarily working in for the holidays stopped
Speaker 1: me and said, oh my gosh, it's Dwight from eight
Speaker 1: o'clock at the Oasis. And I said, who was pretty
Speaker 1: talking about? She goes Gilmore, Gilmore Gilmore And you couldn't
Speaker 1: be were you boring by that point because she was
Speaker 1: probably money? And she said, oh my gosh, I just
Speaker 1: watched it again. Oh I love that show so much,
Speaker 1: and you're Dwight. Oh my god. So and then since
Speaker 1: then I've gotten stopped. Since it's been back on the air,
Speaker 1: you know, wherever it's been playing, it's got a lot
Speaker 1: of recognition for Dwight. It's really amazing. Have you ever
Speaker 1: met anybody? Have you ever met anybody like him? Dwight? Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. I mean any's characters exist in a in
Speaker 1: a kind of a hyper real world in some ways.
Speaker 1: I don't know any he talks at that pace, but
Speaker 1: somebody who's that fastidious and somebody who's that also. It's
Speaker 1: what I loved about this character is clearly the character
Speaker 1: is supposed to be a bit of a nerd. You know,
Speaker 1: he's got this fascination with peaky things, and he's got
Speaker 1: very specific watering of his plants, and he's gone to
Speaker 1: a divorce, and and yet there's something super confident about him.
Speaker 1: You know, he was happy, very you know, gregarious of
Speaker 1: meeting his neighbors and smiley and and something very positive
Speaker 1: about him that you don't usually find in characters that
Speaker 1: people write that are that are more nebishy. Really, So
Speaker 1: I found that really fun. Yeah. Uma, So you've done
Speaker 1: a lot of work on TV and Broadway most recently
Speaker 1: and be Positive and c I S and the undoing. Um,
Speaker 1: very diverse. Do you have a favorite genre of of
Speaker 1: work that you've done. I really, I really don't, because
Speaker 1: I I think when I was a kid, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to do everything. So I wanted to be really
Speaker 1: adapt and everything. I wanted to be able to do
Speaker 1: everything everything from uh, song and dance to to you know, Shakespeare,
Speaker 1: Moliere and dramas on television. And one of the one
Speaker 1: of the shows that I was most known for early
Speaker 1: on was The Practice, where I was a lawyer for
Speaker 1: two years and very mean lawyer. But I had come
Speaker 1: from the world of comedies, so it was like I
Speaker 1: was loving the opportunity to sink my teeth into anything
Speaker 1: like that. So I don't. I really kind of like
Speaker 1: doing at all I can if people give me the opportunity. Um.
Speaker 1: So you're writing as well, You're doing comedy, doing all
Speaker 1: kinds of things. Are you always creating? I mean it's
Speaker 1: you wake up and this is what you do. I
Speaker 1: think that. Um yeah, I get really I get really
Speaker 1: induced by doing the creative things. Uh. This business as
Speaker 1: a business so fickle, and even I feel like I
Speaker 1: do have a bit of a decent track record, a
Speaker 1: good resume, But I go long periods of time without
Speaker 1: getting the opportunity to audition for things or participate in
Speaker 1: the business. So I am constantly looking for ways to
Speaker 1: either entertain myself or entertain other people. So I think
Speaker 1: that's been part of my life, is just being creative.
Speaker 1: So you've had three decades of experience, What's what's what's
Speaker 1: the secret for your success? What? What is it? H?
Speaker 1: You know, what's some funny? Uh? It depends on, of course,
Speaker 1: the ho you measure success, right, Like the fact that
Speaker 1: I've lasted three decades is pretty much the success. I
Speaker 1: recently found out that I'm at an age where I
Speaker 1: can start possibly collecting my pension. And that's the first
Speaker 1: moment in my career I felt like I made it.
Speaker 1: I made retired. It's amazing because at certain times you
Speaker 1: really do feel like you're retired. Um, the longevity I
Speaker 1: think longevity is what I consider successful is the fact
Speaker 1: that I'm still stuck around. And I think you have
Speaker 1: to be Uh, you have to be able to deal
Speaker 1: with projection, or at least you have to be a glutton.
Speaker 1: You have to understand it comes out to all the time,
Speaker 1: and um, I wish I could say I handled it
Speaker 1: really well all the time, and I just still don't.
Speaker 1: And I think it was instilled nearly on it that
Speaker 1: what I was doing had value um and not just
Speaker 1: and read more recently than it's had value beyond just
Speaker 1: um for value beyond you know, for my own self
Speaker 1: entertainment and the self worth, but value in the world
Speaker 1: that that there's there's there's people appreciate having Enter Cayman
Speaker 1: and creativity and someone doing that that they can look
Speaker 1: to in darker times. So I think recognizing that what
Speaker 1: you do as value and I think I was taught
Speaker 1: that early on, and even though I've wavered him up
Speaker 1: and down, and it's been a core belief, I think.
Speaker 1: So I got very lucky to have a family and
Speaker 1: relationships and mentors and friends that have bullied that at
Speaker 1: times when it's believer. So that's been helpful. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think you know when I when I got when I
Speaker 1: was studying in New York. I lived in New York
Speaker 1: for a long time and I studied, I did all
Speaker 1: my training in New York. And the one thing that
Speaker 1: was instilled in me that I'll never forget was what
Speaker 1: a what a privilege and what an honor it was,
Speaker 1: and what a calling it is to do this as
Speaker 1: a profession, and that what a responsibility you have. Um.
Speaker 1: And I don't think a lot of people realize that. Um.
Speaker 1: But it takes, it does take a tremendous amount of
Speaker 1: dedication and the rejection. Yeah, I used to take it
Speaker 1: personally until I stopped taking it personally and realized it
Speaker 1: was just a business decision on the other side, and
Speaker 1: that you can't take it personally because it'll just eat
Speaker 1: you alive and you there'll be nothing left. Um. It's
Speaker 1: just how old were you when they happened? Though? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: I you know, I'd come from a career where it
Speaker 1: was just so much rejection and heartbreak that I had it.
Speaker 1: I had a pretty thick skin coming into this. Um.
Speaker 1: What I had was a work ethic, and I was
Speaker 1: late to the game, so I really needed to play
Speaker 1: catch up. Uh. And that's that's the thing that put
Speaker 1: me over the top, was the work ethic. Um. Well,
Speaker 1: it's funny is I had a similar but I felt
Speaker 1: like I had it was kind of coming from behind
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. I grew up in the Washington,
Speaker 1: D C. Area, and I went to school down there
Speaker 1: to an undergrad program. I didn't go to grad school.
Speaker 1: I worked in theater. It's a fantastic town for doing theater.
Speaker 1: And I was able to get on my union cards
Speaker 1: down there, but I had really had no plans to move.
Speaker 1: I was all set, and then I had enough people
Speaker 1: tell me, you know, you really should give this a
Speaker 1: shot that I didn't move to New York. And I
Speaker 1: was eight, thinking, Okay, the businesses here for the offing.
Speaker 1: I'd like, it's here's here's that's all on the table.
Speaker 1: I've been working in DC, I'll just pick up right here.
Speaker 1: And of course that doesn't happen. So I had to
Speaker 1: learn to hustle. But there were so many people. There
Speaker 1: were so many people who had been there ahead of me,
Speaker 1: who had gone to grad school, who are already working
Speaker 1: on Broadway. And I was not able to get an
Speaker 1: agent and the cook until I was in my mid
Speaker 1: early early thirties and moving out to l A. Before
Speaker 1: I started making any kind of noise. But it was
Speaker 1: really my own hustle that did that. I ended up
Speaker 1: writing a two man sketch comedy show in New York
Speaker 1: that got nowhere here, but took it to l A
Speaker 1: and just lucked in, been getting the right people in
Speaker 1: the room and heading off to the Aspen Comedy Festival,
Speaker 1: and then I suddenly had an agent and I said,
Speaker 1: they had a career. It was again, you know, it's
Speaker 1: the hustle. It's knowing that you gotta hustle, but it's
Speaker 1: but it's creating your own content. That's a lot of
Speaker 1: my life has been creating my own pop. That's that's
Speaker 1: what they look for, that's what they want to sign.
Speaker 1: You know, Like that's worked for me in that scenario.
Speaker 1: But you know, again, but I thought, probably guys playing
Speaker 1: catch up the whole time too, Like everybody else has
Speaker 1: got an agent, everybody else is younger than me, and
Speaker 1: it's been signed and is working, and I have nothing.
Speaker 1: So I had to really scramble. But that's part of
Speaker 1: the deal. The problem a lot of people have is
Speaker 1: they scramble when they get here and they pustle, but
Speaker 1: they don't create. They hustle they get there, they try
Speaker 1: to get them to connect to the agents and managers
Speaker 1: and they're not really producing anything. And I think that
Speaker 1: that the ability to kind of like know that I
Speaker 1: had to follow that path as well, was gave me
Speaker 1: a little bit an edge or maybe it's the nose.
Speaker 1: I have no idea what no one knows. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: now we're going to get into your resume. Okay, because
Speaker 1: this is this is uh it's extraordinary. So let me
Speaker 1: just read this off. Okay, and uh um and and
Speaker 1: everybody in the audience to take note. This is a
Speaker 1: real privilege to read this off for somebody that has
Speaker 1: this diverse resume and has been this successful. Um Film
Speaker 1: credits include Chinese Puzzle to Step for Wives, Sweet Nose,
Speaker 1: Sweet November Morning, Glory, Laura gets a cat Accommodations, My
Speaker 1: dead Boyfriend, What just Happened? In an animated feature film Blink.
Speaker 1: Ravitz has appeared in several Broadway shows, including the original
Speaker 1: production of Tony Award winning The Drowsy Chaperone, the two
Speaker 1: thousand three revival of Sly Fox directed by Arthur pen
Speaker 1: We need to talk about Arthur pen um um but
Speaker 1: the City Center on Course production of The Golden Apple,
Speaker 1: Relatively Speaking, and evening of three one Acts with Ethan Colen,
Speaker 1: Elaine May, and Woody Allen directed by John Detro. We
Speaker 1: have to talk about John Detro. Along with comedy partner
Speaker 1: Drol Jones. Jason's two man Sketch Show On Evening with
Speaker 1: Kravitz and Jones took home the Jury Award at the
Speaker 1: nine US Comedy Festival at Aspen, Colorado. We have to
Speaker 1: talk about Aspen, Colorado. The show is based on material
Speaker 1: developed and long running Rumble in the Red Room Collective.
Speaker 1: As a writer, Jason penned a ten minute Green Eggs
Speaker 1: and Hamlet. Will you please tell me about? There's more?
Speaker 1: But I'm im a Hamlet fanatic, a freak, my favorite play,
Speaker 1: my favorite character. What is that all about? I've had
Speaker 1: many things I've done on a dare, and I think
Speaker 1: somebody said. I came up with joking one day with
Speaker 1: somebody about green Eggs and ham and I said, oh,
Speaker 1: green Eggs and Hamlet, and I said you should write that.
Speaker 1: And it's a ten minute play that that starts with.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a sad fellow named Hamlet the Dane,
Speaker 1: and all he would do is complaining, complaint. And then
Speaker 1: Hamlet says, I come back from college, my father is
Speaker 1: dead and my mother has married my uncle instead she
Speaker 1: sometimes my sister. And that was my queen. What can
Speaker 1: Let's come? If you know what I mean it just
Speaker 1: goes on and the ghost comes out and says, would
Speaker 1: you could you with a knife? Would you could you
Speaker 1: take his life? You know? And it's a still devolved
Speaker 1: from there into the sparsible ten minutes of like Dr
Speaker 1: SEUs rhymes and people getting killed by eating poisoned breakfast fees.
Speaker 1: I mean that's just you know, because listen, I no
Speaker 1: longer do. But uh, when my son was very small,
Speaker 1: I would read him nothing but Dr. SEUs. And there's
Speaker 1: nothing more brilliant as people with children know. It's all
Speaker 1: I am, But it's all it's experience, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: SEUs is the Shakespeare of children's books. Um. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: my son, on the other hand, my son was when
Speaker 1: he was a baby, his mother was rehearsing for the
Speaker 1: role of Titania and I at one point I said
Speaker 1: to him, what does daddy say? And he said, Daddy says,
Speaker 1: I love you. I said, what does mommy say? He said,
Speaker 1: Mommy said, these are the full juries of jealousy. Oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, Oh yeah, oh my gosh. Uh. Holiday stories,
Speaker 1: the holiday stories, the was and Bullwinkle, Yeah, the Christmas
Speaker 1: Story Christmas. Yeah, we wrote that. My partner and Joel
Speaker 1: and I wrote that for Universal uh years and years ago.
Speaker 1: I never got made even own it, but we do
Speaker 1: every once in a while we'll do a charity reading
Speaker 1: of it. And again you know, it's all bad puns
Speaker 1: and non secutors, if you know, bowl eagle. And then
Speaker 1: the catch is a part of the Bridge, which is
Speaker 1: again it's it's the Han a conversion of the Bridge
Speaker 1: and Dr SEUs Ryan, which I love to write in.
Speaker 1: So you graduated from University of Mayland, Maryland. You perform
Speaker 1: extensively at the Shakespeare Theater, Roundhouse Theater and Wooly Mammoth
Speaker 1: Theater Company. Wow. Um, tell me about your love for Shakespeare.
Speaker 1: How did you first experienced Shakespeare and what was the
Speaker 1: first character you had to break down and play that
Speaker 1: you performed in uh? In high school when I was
Speaker 1: doing a summer school for the performing arts, I uh
Speaker 1: was told by a long departed, wonderful mentor of mine
Speaker 1: who was teaching that summer UH that I should try
Speaker 1: Puck and just just a month alogue just doing you
Speaker 1: know if we shadows have offended? And I got it.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, oh this makes sense. And then
Speaker 1: in college I I continue I mean, I studied. I
Speaker 1: did some more in high school, you know, did the
Speaker 1: mechanicals and did mercutio and little touches of things. But
Speaker 1: then when I got to college, I was a freshman
Speaker 1: and I had an upper class teacher, professor for upperclassmen,
Speaker 1: who was leaving, and he took a few of us
Speaker 1: underclassmen and said, I want you to study Shakespeare with me,
Speaker 1: because I think you guys should try this. And we
Speaker 1: did a lot of studying the John Barton Acting Shakespeare
Speaker 1: Capes library and learning how, um, how the vocabulary work
Speaker 1: and how the pentameter work and what that told you
Speaker 1: about characters getting informed by the words, and I just
Speaker 1: it was just one of my favorite things to do.
Speaker 1: And then um, and then I had one teacher in college.
Speaker 1: We did Loves Labors and lost Uh, And we did
Speaker 1: it in in a park in Washington, d C. We
Speaker 1: rehearsed it. I shouldn't say it before we reformed it
Speaker 1: on at school, but we did one rehearsal in the
Speaker 1: kind of a manicured park in Washington, d C. Just
Speaker 1: give a sense of surroundings. And that led to I
Speaker 1: did some Shakespeare after college as well. But I also
Speaker 1: did this one project that I just came up with again,
Speaker 1: you know, doing creative things and finding all of your
Speaker 1: love for things converging. I did something called Shakespeare and
Speaker 1: the Rough, and what I did was I got a
Speaker 1: bunch of actors together and I cast The Tempest just
Speaker 1: randomly with actors that I knew from DC, and I said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do a two day event on Saturday. We're
Speaker 1: going to meet and read the plan. Now, anybody, there's
Speaker 1: no director, So if you want to stop and say
Speaker 1: I have a question about that character, or I have
Speaker 1: some thoughts about her, I've seen a production where that
Speaker 1: character did this. It doesn't matter who you are in
Speaker 1: the plan. You can comment on anything about the characters.
Speaker 1: And then the next day we went to a nature
Speaker 1: preserve in the suburbs of Washington, d C. And I
Speaker 1: mapped it. I gave everybody a map of the surroundings.
Speaker 1: I said, go find where your scenes take place, but
Speaker 1: don't rehearse them. Come back and we'll map everything out
Speaker 1: the order of the show where things take place, will
Speaker 1: have lunch, and then we're gonna go and we're gonna
Speaker 1: go do one scene to one scene, and if you're
Speaker 1: in the scene, you should take off so we can
Speaker 1: discover you in it. But otherwise you can watch. We
Speaker 1: didn't have an audience. We performed for each other, we
Speaker 1: had musicians, we had just it was and I said,
Speaker 1: just improvised it. But you also are not responsible to anybody.
Speaker 1: You're responsible to the text. That's it. You don't have
Speaker 1: to perform it for the other actors. It can be
Speaker 1: like a television performance. You can even think the lines
Speaker 1: if you feel that's the case. Of course, everyody's on book.
Speaker 1: I was holding the script. Um. I said, you can
Speaker 1: do whatever you want and just you know, and I
Speaker 1: saw that play come to life in a way that
Speaker 1: I've I've never seen it since. It was just I
Speaker 1: mean literally, the people in the shipwreck scene that starts
Speaker 1: the tempest, literally one of them brought a little dinghy
Speaker 1: and put the king and the king's son and the dinghy,
Speaker 1: and they all went up to the lake, into the
Speaker 1: lake that we were near, up to their chest and
Speaker 1: screened the lines of each other while they had people
Speaker 1: throwing buckets of water at them from the shore. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was like, I didn't plan that. But people, when
Speaker 1: they're given the opportunity for the freedom to create, you
Speaker 1: can watch it explode, and I just that's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite experiences, even though I very I mean, I
Speaker 1: played Caliban, I had my fund doing the character that
Speaker 1: I usually wouldn't get casting, but watching the creativity of
Speaker 1: people that I adored as performers anyway, just watching them
Speaker 1: have the freedom to just go. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: friend of My best Shakespeare experience is that discovering the
Speaker 1: rehearsal processes is far more interesting thing invaluable. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm filling the actual performances. Oh I really, I really
Speaker 1: felt like if there was if I was to direct,
Speaker 1: uh Shakespeare played, my first rehearsal would be that give
Speaker 1: the give the actor's first crack before you tell them,
Speaker 1: here's what the set is, here's what the costumes are
Speaker 1: gonna look like, here's what the theme is, and you're
Speaker 1: all going to fit in the box that I created
Speaker 1: in my mind. I'm going to start with letting them
Speaker 1: play because they're gonna give me things to discover that
Speaker 1: I They're going to discover things that I would have
Speaker 1: discovered otherwise. So I haven't ad a chance to do
Speaker 1: that yet, but maybe somebody. Oh God, you're making me
Speaker 1: miss New York so much. Okay. So when I was
Speaker 1: I had a teacher in New York named Sandra Lee,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if you know who she is,
Speaker 1: but yeah, she's one of the great ladies of the theater,
Speaker 1: right and um, she encouraged me to go um audition
Speaker 1: for the actor's studio and long story short, six weeks
Speaker 1: of rehearsal with my scene partner, we went in there.
Speaker 1: They stopped us after a minute and a half and said,
Speaker 1: thank you very much. Went into class. Did the scene.
Speaker 1: Learned a lot, you know. I went back to it again,
Speaker 1: got shot down after three minutes. So it's really hard
Speaker 1: to get in. But I was an observer. Um. I
Speaker 1: was allowed to be in the even the playwright director sessions,
Speaker 1: which Arthur Penn ran, and I was exposed to Arthur
Speaker 1: Penn for a couple of years. Every week it was Tuesday, No,
Speaker 1: Tuesday was the acting Thursday or Friday was the producer
Speaker 1: director unit. And Paul Newman would go to both of them,
Speaker 1: Um and comment, and it was extraordinary. Tell me about
Speaker 1: your experience with Arthur Penn. I'm usually more excited Arthur
Speaker 1: pun Um. So uh. He directed Sly Fox. The production
Speaker 1: originally starred Richard Dreyfus Uh with Bronson pin Show and
Speaker 1: Bob Dishy and Eric Stolts, amongst many others, and including
Speaker 1: Reneo Versionois Beery departed. I think Renee had the idea
Speaker 1: to do the show, and I think he brought it
Speaker 1: to the producer and he brought it to Arthur and
Speaker 1: they were The producer said this is great, except we
Speaker 1: can't cast you as Sly the main character. We need
Speaker 1: to cast somebody else, like Richard Dreyfus. So I was
Speaker 1: not in that cast, but at a certain point they
Speaker 1: were doing a replacement cast on Broadway. Was my first
Speaker 1: Broadway show. Uh. And they brought me in and said, uh,
Speaker 1: I auditioned and then they said, for you know this
Speaker 1: part called Craving the Lawyer. And they said after I
Speaker 1: auditionally said okay, we're gonna We're gonna offer this to
Speaker 1: you and I said that's fantastically. They said have you
Speaker 1: seen the show and I said I haven't seen it,
Speaker 1: and they said, okay, go tonight. But and Arthur said,
Speaker 1: but don't pay attention to what anyone's doing because they
Speaker 1: have ruined, they've got too big, they've stretched it out.
Speaker 1: Just don't pay attention to what anyone's doing. And I said,
Speaker 1: all right, Peter Scalari was immense production boy. He was
Speaker 1: God loved it and you know the rest his soul.
Speaker 1: He was talented in a way that nobody else was.
Speaker 1: He was. He was a brilliant comic and clown. But
Speaker 1: yeah he could. He could what they call stomp and feather.
Speaker 1: You hit the joke of and you just make the
Speaker 1: laugh last longer and longer. He was the master at that.
Speaker 1: So I saw what Arthur was talking about. And after
Speaker 1: the show, I went backstage and I saw Renee and
Speaker 1: I saw a few other people and what they said,
Speaker 1: are you doing the show? I said, yeah, I'm coming
Speaker 1: in to replace Bronson, so playing that role. And Rene
Speaker 1: when he says, when you're in rehearsal, don't listen to
Speaker 1: anything that Arthur tells you. So pictured me, this is
Speaker 1: my first Broadway show and I'm getting Arthur Kind telling
Speaker 1: me not to pay thing to them, and they're telling
Speaker 1: me don't listen to Arthur, and I was just like,
Speaker 1: how does have you been here? But then but then
Speaker 1: we spent three weeks rehearsing. Richard Kind took over for
Speaker 1: Richard drive this uh and Bronson actually took over for
Speaker 1: Eric Stolts, and Larry Storch came into the project. Carl Kane,
Speaker 1: I think we were teeny another great actor, um and
Speaker 1: I was just surrounded by these masters, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Arthur was very, uh stressed about the whole thing. I
Speaker 1: think he was unhappy and he was trying to rend
Speaker 1: it in um. And I took the bus with him
Speaker 1: one day uptown, which was kind of like guitar's buying
Speaker 1: Clyde material are right. So it was a great experience
Speaker 1: for me. I don't know if it was a great
Speaker 1: for him those two thousand and three How how old
Speaker 1: was he at that time? He must have been pretty old.
Speaker 1: He was pretty old. He was kind of career. It
Speaker 1: might have been one of the last things he did.
Speaker 1: Um m hmm um. John Taturo, Yeah, I first time
Speaker 1: I saw John Taturo was at the God What was it?
Speaker 1: It was the It was an Italian American reconciliation with
Speaker 1: Lars Angecomo and John Panco, all three performers where I
Speaker 1: love Did you see that? Did you see that? Extraordinary?
Speaker 1: It was one of my favorite acts. He's gotten to
Speaker 1: prove it over and over again, especially in the last
Speaker 1: you know, five seven years. I mean when he did
Speaker 1: The Night Of when he was the detective in the
Speaker 1: Night and he was fantastic in that, and then recently
Speaker 1: in Severance, I just you know, just watched that and
Speaker 1: boy but he didn't walking together, just getting fantastic, fantastic phone. So, um,
Speaker 1: he's he's a really nice guy and I definitely count
Speaker 1: as a friend. So I'm glad to see him constantly busy.
Speaker 1: Tell me about your experience at the Aspen Comedy Festival. Well,
Speaker 1: that was another one of those remarkable coincidental moments that
Speaker 1: you get. You know what they say the luck, the
Speaker 1: crossroads between persistence an opportunity, Right, that's what luck is.
Speaker 1: So I was very persistent. I was working on the
Speaker 1: show in New York and this two man comedy musical
Speaker 1: and music and comedy show, and um, we went to
Speaker 1: l A just on a whim. It was like, look,
Speaker 1: you know, we've got friends out there who want to
Speaker 1: see our show. Let's go out there. There's this one
Speaker 1: agent that may be interested. You know, I can invite her.
Speaker 1: And it just so happened that it was at the
Speaker 1: exact moment they were doing the finalists, the final judging
Speaker 1: for the Comedy Festival for that year's Asking Comedy Festival.
Speaker 1: So this must have been the fall of like we're
Speaker 1: right between Thanksgiving the yearning and Thanksgiving Christmas, I mean,
Speaker 1: and then we just did our show and we got
Speaker 1: somehow we got Mark Hushfeld got to the show. Mark Hushfelt,
Speaker 1: casting director for Seinfeld, went on to comedy casting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, yes, so he's so he came to the
Speaker 1: show and he said, look, we're doing final casting. Can
Speaker 1: you throw together an hour long version of this for
Speaker 1: Saturday because we only have Saturday at like four o'clock
Speaker 1: because we're seeing comedy people at five thirty downstairs. It
Speaker 1: was at the Improv, so you know, they had that
Speaker 1: upstairs at the Improv up stairs behind the parking lot,
Speaker 1: and then they were going downstairs to see uh comedians.
Speaker 1: After that they said, okay, with your it together and
Speaker 1: quick turn around. We ended up getting invited to the festival,
Speaker 1: and it was overwhelming because as anybody who hustles and
Speaker 1: shure you have knows, when we were putting our own
Speaker 1: show up, you're pounding the payment to get people not
Speaker 1: just not just you know, agents and comedy people, and
Speaker 1: you're you're getting anyone comes to your show audience to
Speaker 1: see people in the seats, such a process, and you're
Speaker 1: doing your own costumes and you're doing your own costume
Speaker 1: changes and it's all very bare bones. Well, you get
Speaker 1: in ready to the Askment Comedy Festival. They got their
Speaker 1: audiences are sold out ahead of time. You're gonna have
Speaker 1: two fifty people at night. No matter what you do,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have people backstage helping you. You would literally
Speaker 1: have people backstage with oxygen masks because you're an aspen
Speaker 1: and you'd come off exhausted that So so we were like,
Speaker 1: we were unbelievable when you're given this, you know, great opportunity,
Speaker 1: the past of Second City years being celebrated at the festival.
Speaker 1: So there we've got the gene Levy and we've got
Speaker 1: you know, Andrew Martin, We've got all these people in
Speaker 1: the audience that are like heroes, heroes of us. And
Speaker 1: it was like zero to sixty, you know. Two months
Speaker 1: before that, we were upstairs at the improv like you know,
Speaker 1: black box, like basically running our own lights and sound
Speaker 1: as we did. And after that we it was great
Speaker 1: to be there, but I think I was so we
Speaker 1: had come from New York I knew anything by l A.
Speaker 1: I didn't. I was only four years in New York
Speaker 1: at that point, so I didn't realize the magnitude of
Speaker 1: what we were doing and who exactly was. It was
Speaker 1: one thing to say, well, the cast of SETV is here.
Speaker 1: It's another thing to say, well the head of development
Speaker 1: for ABC is here, or Castle Rock or you know,
Speaker 1: you name the production company. Everybody's are looking for the
Speaker 1: next thing. We didn't know that. So when we got
Speaker 1: back to l A. Our agents were pretty small potatoes
Speaker 1: at the time and they didn't know what to do
Speaker 1: with that. So instead of we had a lot of meetings.
Speaker 1: We called it the couch and water tour because you
Speaker 1: come in and say, would you like to bottle of
Speaker 1: water on a seat on the couch, and that's what
Speaker 1: you would do. And what we didn't do was, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, pitch a sitcom idea, you know, give them
Speaker 1: some something that to work with us on. They just,
Speaker 1: you know, they just um. So at the end of
Speaker 1: the meetings they were like, this has been great. Have
Speaker 1: some water. The water is the consolation price. You know.
Speaker 1: It didn't go well when they're offering you more water
Speaker 1: on the way up because you're not going to get
Speaker 1: any part of that. But we had no idea. We
Speaker 1: were so naive, and by the time we figured it
Speaker 1: out that way, if it preston and dropped. So I
Speaker 1: was very fortunate that I was in l A and
Speaker 1: was able to audition for a few things and end
Speaker 1: up getting some decent roles and starting a career from that.
Speaker 1: But I think if we had, if we had been
Speaker 1: smarter about it, or at least as more knowledgeable about
Speaker 1: the business, we could have a lot more pain for
Speaker 1: our book. But as it was, the Aspen Pacible itself
Speaker 1: was just a dream, dream true. We have time for
Speaker 1: one last question. I could talk to I could talk
Speaker 1: to you all day. First of all, no, no, I
Speaker 1: have I have two more questions. Did you ever get
Speaker 1: down to the Wooster Group and see Elizabeth Comps Uh
Speaker 1: was Willem Dafosta? You never saw that because I was
Speaker 1: don't forget I was in d cret in the DC
Speaker 1: area until so the Wooster Group was still doing I
Speaker 1: did see. One thing they did was long after William
Speaker 1: Dafoe was you know, in Hollywood and not coming back
Speaker 1: to do stuff. So you know, it was very a
Speaker 1: lot of that great, organically unique pieces of theater weren't
Speaker 1: happening at the same way, but you know, sche was here.
Speaker 1: I think there were some great venues downtown, you know,
Speaker 1: uh to get to and see crazy interesting stuff. But
Speaker 1: but the heyday of that in the in the late
Speaker 1: eighties and stuff was yeah, yeah, that's when I saw it.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, um. What would you give if you were
Speaker 1: to give advice to a young actor starting out? And
Speaker 1: I know there's always one thing I tell everybody when
Speaker 1: they asked me, what would you What would your advice
Speaker 1: be to young actors starting out as far as what
Speaker 1: to study, where to study? Because I think that's the
Speaker 1: most important thing is you know when people ask me, hey,
Speaker 1: should I move to l A and like, who have
Speaker 1: you studied with? What do you know? You know, what
Speaker 1: do you love? That's from every years. So you know,
Speaker 1: if you would ask me ten fifteen years ago, I
Speaker 1: had one answer, you know, and then I learned that
Speaker 1: how you succeed in this business? The very simple answer
Speaker 1: to that is, I don't know, because nobody knows. I
Speaker 1: get into professional wrestling. Then you go, you know, why
Speaker 1: are you not working right now? I don't know? Why
Speaker 1: did you get that job? I don't know, because nobody knows.
Speaker 1: Even the people doing the pass and even people making
Speaker 1: the final decision, they don't really know the pain this
Speaker 1: work because because this is never consistent, everybody thinks they
Speaker 1: know and then it changes. Um. I always say to people,
Speaker 1: make sure that you're you don't let the creative muscle atrophy.
Speaker 1: You've got to be doing creative things that have nothing
Speaker 1: to do with getting work or making it in the
Speaker 1: business or making money, because otherwise you'll be your soul
Speaker 1: will dry up. So make sure you're constantly like, even
Speaker 1: if it means just going to museum, just be creative
Speaker 1: in some way some hoow. But I think the biggest
Speaker 1: piece of advice now for young people is get connected
Speaker 1: to other people, because those are going to be your people,
Speaker 1: and as you go forward, those people are going to
Speaker 1: be doing things, and you're going to be involved in
Speaker 1: those things, and then you're going to do things, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna have your tribe to call on and as
Speaker 1: you guys, as one person getting success, you will be
Speaker 1: more connected to them to a wider portion of the business.
Speaker 1: So there's so many ways to be creative now that
Speaker 1: is also potentially ways of getting seen. I mean, obviously
Speaker 1: there's things like TikTok and YouTube, but there's also a
Speaker 1: million other things you can do to get involved in business.
Speaker 1: And there's no excuse for not getting involved in some way.
Speaker 1: But take classes in a way, I understand your point
Speaker 1: about like, you know, who are you studying with it?
Speaker 1: That's really important for your to learn a lot of
Speaker 1: the craft and you should learn the crafty strustle and
Speaker 1: the skills as you know. I'm sure it's like there's
Speaker 1: a different skill set that goes along with doing a
Speaker 1: commercial audition than on camera audition, than a theater audition
Speaker 1: than I mean, you know, your televisioneration or a film audition.
Speaker 1: There's very different skill sets you have to understand, and
Speaker 1: that's something you can study, you should study. But get
Speaker 1: yourself involved with other people and the connections you make
Speaker 1: are the thing that can make that that's going to
Speaker 1: make you have a career, that's going to give your
Speaker 1: careers who you know, it always it's the same in
Speaker 1: every business really, but I'm beginning to think that's the
Speaker 1: real key to this. Just connect yourself. Yeah, it's a community,
Speaker 1: It's definitely a community, Jason. It was a pleasure, my
Speaker 1: pleasure listen. You know how at talking about themselves, So
Speaker 1: you know it's a difficult thing, but I think we
Speaker 1: got through you. What are you? What are you doing
Speaker 1: right now? What are you working on right now? Something
Speaker 1: coming out? What are you doing? Yeah? I have a
Speaker 1: show that I'm doing that I've been doing for about
Speaker 1: five years now, no more, called Off the Top, and
Speaker 1: it was just an idea I had that's blossom into
Speaker 1: a really bigger enterprise. It isn't a completely improvised cabaret,
Speaker 1: by which I mean everybody writes down. People write down
Speaker 1: suggestions ahead of time at their tables at eater. They
Speaker 1: all put these I'm performing at Birdland right now, but
Speaker 1: they take their suggestions put in a fish bowl, and
Speaker 1: then I come out and I basically sing songs based
Speaker 1: on whatever suggestion I pulled from the fish um. And
Speaker 1: that could be a song called feature Vegetables, or it
Speaker 1: could be a song called your Villa is Here. And
Speaker 1: I have a band and we make up the songs
Speaker 1: and the story as we go along. Are you in
Speaker 1: New York right now? Are you in a I'm based
Speaker 1: in New York at the moment, but I've done the
Speaker 1: show a few times out there at Botello's, you know,
Speaker 1: friend Stein's at Potelos. Now, Birdland here in New York
Speaker 1: is my current home. I'm doing the show Monday, uh
Speaker 1: this Monday the sixteenth at thirty and then I'm taking
Speaker 1: it over to London for two shows in London. And
Speaker 1: uh yeah, so that's kind of been my my kind
Speaker 1: of side gig right now. My side hustle has just
Speaker 1: been putting together this this silly fun and music and comedy,
Speaker 1: terrific fun. Oh my god, I want to go. I
Speaker 1: want to go. I want to go. Get on the plane.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I keep your mask on though, that's
Speaker 1: just you know, on the flight. All right, Jason, good
Speaker 1: luck with everything. Tell people where they can tell people
Speaker 1: where Birdland is and when when you're performing. Yes, Burgland
Speaker 1: is Burgland Theater is at Street in near Times Square
Speaker 1: between the eighth and ninth Avenue. It is Monday May
Speaker 1: sixteen at eight thirty pm. You can get your tickets
Speaker 1: at www dot Bergland Jazz dot com. Burgland Jazz dot com.
Speaker 1: It is a guarantee it'll be a fun night. That's
Speaker 1: all I can tell you. I have no idea what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sing. I have no idea who the character
Speaker 1: is going to be. I have no idea what the
Speaker 1: story is going to be, but it's it's usually a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. At least it's for me, I hope.
Speaker 1: It's how how long is the engagement? Does it go
Speaker 1: on or is it limited? Just the one off? Okay,
Speaker 1: so just one off on the sixteen, and then hopefully
Speaker 1: I'll be back again to fall or next year, you know,
Speaker 1: whenever they can schedule me. All right, everybody, get out there,
Speaker 1: if you're in the area, go see him. Okay, thank you, Jason,
Speaker 1: all the best, good luck with everything, Good luck with
Speaker 1: the London shows up and uh hope we gotta have
Speaker 1: you back on. There's just there's so much more to unpack.
Speaker 1: I didn't get the half of the stuff I wanted
Speaker 1: to talk about. I'm here, man, I got you know, alright, London,
Speaker 1: good deal man, good talking to you, a good meeting
Speaker 1: you all the best team my friends. Okay, all right,
Speaker 1: take care bye, y hey everybody, and don't forget follow
Speaker 1: us on Instagram at I Am all In podcast and
Speaker 1: Emailie at Gilmore at I heart radio dot com. Oh
Speaker 1: you Gilmore fans. If you're looking for the best cup
Speaker 1: of coffee in the world. Go to my website for
Speaker 1: my company, scott ep dot com s c O T.
Speaker 1: T y P dot com, scott ep dot com Grade
Speaker 1: one Specialty Coffee. Yeah.