Speaker 1: And that's what you really missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2: And Kevin and iHeartRadio podcast. Welcome to and that's what
Speaker 2: you really missed. I feel like I'm cheating on Jenna
Speaker 2: by saying that, But here we are today. We have
Speaker 2: one of the og Grease cast members, Barry Pearl, who
Speaker 2: played Duty, one of the original t Birds. He also
Speaker 2: was in the stage show before. We talked about all
Speaker 2: of that, talk about his incredible career child actor, everyone
Speaker 2: child actor, and he turned out. Okay, he is great.
Speaker 2: He's a sensational storyteller. We get to hear all about.
Speaker 2: You know what I was fascinated going into this was like,
Speaker 2: how did this really come about? Like when you're around,
Speaker 2: you know, we've been in the entertainment business forever, you
Speaker 2: hear about projects coming up, and I wanted to know, like,
Speaker 2: if you're there on the ground in the late sixties,
Speaker 2: early seventies, what was this about. So Barry gives us
Speaker 2: all all the pearls of wisdom.
Speaker 3: I hate myself.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is very Pearl.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, it's so nice to meet you.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you so much for joining us. This is
Speaker 2: very exciting.
Speaker 3: Chris, Thank you guys for making that donation to Owen
Speaker 3: J's Wellness Center.
Speaker 2: That is respect Thank you for asking for that. That
Speaker 2: was great of course. Do you want to tell us
Speaker 2: about the work they.
Speaker 3: Do well, they're allied with the Austin Health I've been
Speaker 3: there actually I took a tour Toddy Goldsmith, who is
Speaker 3: Olivia's niece from Rona who is her sister. I had
Speaker 3: gone over to do what is tantamount to our comic
Speaker 3: cons in Australia. They're called supernova's.
Speaker 2: So yes, I've done one, you have yours. We did
Speaker 2: it in Sydney, Sydney. Yeah, I've done Sydney.
Speaker 3: Perth, Melbourne and gold Coast. I was, I guess in Melbourne.
Speaker 3: They had me over to the to the center and
Speaker 3: gave me a tour. And it's her research facility that
Speaker 3: is funded you know by private donors. That's how they
Speaker 3: stay afloat. It is that center that's exceedingly special because
Speaker 3: that's again where all the research is done to come
Speaker 3: up with but they need to to battle this this
Speaker 3: cant cancer all together. Yeah, so that's that, and so
Speaker 3: the donation goes to to this, to that part of
Speaker 3: the center, that part of her center, and you walk
Speaker 3: downstairs down the stairs from floor to floor and as
Speaker 3: you walk down, instead of a wall there, it's an
Speaker 3: open it's a huge window, so you can see the
Speaker 3: trees and yeah, or the patio park area that they
Speaker 3: have for people to sit and relax and whatever. They
Speaker 3: have rooms and music rooms and it's again a whole
Speaker 3: a holistic approach to healing the cancer, you know, and
Speaker 3: body spirit. So it's it's quite it's quite something.
Speaker 4: Yeah sounds like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially you got to go see it in real life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was pretty terrific.
Speaker 4: Well, we're curious to hear of it. We just watched Greece.
Speaker 2: Again watching.
Speaker 4: But uh, it's such an iconic piece of history.
Speaker 1: Is one of the most arguably the most popular and
Speaker 1: defining musical movie of all time, and it must feel
Speaker 1: pretty special that you were a part of that, and
Speaker 1: long before that the stage production as well, but also
Speaker 1: like seeing Greece live on in today and you know,
Speaker 1: for these younger generations that are still discovering and doing
Speaker 1: this in schools, et cetera. So I'm just curious to
Speaker 1: hear like what that journey has been like for you
Speaker 1: and seeing all these different inceptions and being part of
Speaker 1: the very original kind of start of it all.
Speaker 3: First, I'm blessed to say the least as are each
Speaker 3: of us, that we're a part of that phenomenon. We
Speaker 3: do not take it for granted, and there really isn't
Speaker 3: anything like it. And at the same time, it's funny.
Speaker 3: It's so monumental, it's such a legacy. But I don't
Speaker 3: wake up every morning with it in my eye, if
Speaker 3: that makes sense. Yeah, I'm aware of it. When I'm
Speaker 3: aware of it, I don't. I certainly don't laud it
Speaker 3: over people, and I'm I've always been exceedingly willing to
Speaker 3: talk about it with everybody. Friends and fans of like
Speaker 3: friends have had enough of it, believe and I often
Speaker 3: worry about that because I think that I don't want
Speaker 3: them to think that I'm full of myself with it.
Speaker 3: And I'm certain there are folks out there, oh Barry, Yeah,
Speaker 3: if I hear Greece one more time, you know, and
Speaker 3: I guess that will just be what it is, and
Speaker 3: so be it, because there are vast numbers of folks
Speaker 3: out there who, like yourselves, are very taken with what
Speaker 3: this experience is like for them and must be like
Speaker 3: for us. And we take it in stride again, we
Speaker 3: feel blessed? Do we feel special as much as I
Speaker 3: feel as special as I allow myself to feel without
Speaker 3: being conceited about it, without again, like I say, lauding
Speaker 3: it over anybody, or just having there about it. Because
Speaker 3: a lot of luck went into and and always goes
Speaker 3: into anyone who works a lot of talent, a lot
Speaker 3: of perseverance, and an element of luck. So yeah, we
Speaker 3: just don't take it for granted, if you know what
Speaker 3: I mean. Definitely, So as much as I don't think
Speaker 3: about it every day, it's with me every day that
Speaker 3: I'm blessed.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, And when these kinds of.
Speaker 3: Things come up, we love telling the stories. I mean,
Speaker 3: you're probably going to ask me questions that I've answered many, many,
Speaker 3: many times, So forgive me if I'm repeating myself. Folks
Speaker 3: who are watching this, I don't know that you're going
Speaker 3: to learn anything necessarily new. It's not going to be
Speaker 3: so revolutionary. And if you've heard it before, you're going
Speaker 3: to hear it again, I guess, and the new the
Speaker 3: new folks out there, you know, strap In.
Speaker 2: I think it's a really important point you bring up
Speaker 2: about because I think it happens to us and we're
Speaker 2: much earlier in the journey of being a part of
Speaker 2: something that went on to mean more than we could
Speaker 2: have ever imagined to people. And obviously, you know, I
Speaker 2: think being a musical musicals connect on a whole different level,
Speaker 2: I think than other forms of TV and film. Sure,
Speaker 2: And I think your distinction between talking about it because
Speaker 2: you're so proud of it and blessed to be a
Speaker 2: part of something that meant so much to you and
Speaker 2: so much to other people, and then the difference between
Speaker 2: that and the ego and being conceited about it and obviously,
Speaker 2: speaking to you now for what less than ten minutes,
Speaker 2: clearly it's you know, the former. And I think where
Speaker 2: I struggle with that and think about that in my
Speaker 2: personal life too, when I'm talking about it and I'm
Speaker 2: not bragging about something I did, you know, fifteen years ago,
Speaker 2: but especially for you, where this has a real, deep,
Speaker 2: deeply ingrained legacy in so many people and it is
Speaker 2: something you should be so proud of.
Speaker 4: Yeah, uninevitable, you know.
Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely, Like it is so rare that you get
Speaker 2: to be a part of that, any of us, and
Speaker 2: so to be a part of and yours is such
Speaker 2: a singular thing. Yeah, because it was. I mean it
Speaker 2: was beyond like the numbers. Yes, it was the biggest
Speaker 2: grossing until like what last year like that, like that,
Speaker 2: nobody else can say that.
Speaker 3: Generation after generation. Yes, and we see I mean literally
Speaker 3: we will see grandmothers sometimes great grandmothers, the grandmothers, the mothers,
Speaker 3: the children and the children's children. It's it blows us away.
Speaker 3: We were just Jamie Donnelle plays Jan and Michael Tucci
Speaker 3: plays Sonny, and Larenzelamis plays Tom Chisholm and myself. We
Speaker 3: often get taken for for weekends in different parts of
Speaker 3: the country to do events, and we've done several drive ins.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, So I'm driving up to this driving in Litchfield,
Speaker 3: MISSOURIUS and this is where my career has come to
Speaker 3: a drive in getting around Well, let me tell you,
Speaker 3: over nine hundred people stood in line from five pm
Speaker 3: to eight thirty pm after the movie started to get
Speaker 3: our autographs and take photos with Yeah.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: So it's huge in that way and I don't I'm
Speaker 3: not diminishing it in any way. And yet at the
Speaker 3: same time I'm signing autographs that to drive in Well, yeah, yes,
Speaker 3: those folks go to the drive in to be entertained
Speaker 3: and then to meet they're the icons, the ones they've
Speaker 3: grown up with and connection with it. You're talking about
Speaker 3: how special it is, and we stop and we talk
Speaker 3: with every single person who comes by, whether they're coming
Speaker 3: by for an autograph or passing me up to get
Speaker 3: Jamie's autograph. They're in line and we're schmoozing. And they
Speaker 3: stood there in the heat and the wind all that
Speaker 3: time to have some fellowship with us. And yeah, we
Speaker 3: we've been to these comic cons and we have seen
Speaker 3: lines around the room for the bigs like the William
Speaker 3: Shatners and and uh, the casts of of what can
Speaker 3: I think of Star Trek, you know, for instance, and
Speaker 3: TV shows like of What's Happening and Vicky Vicky Lawrence. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and it goes on and on. Marty Cove from Cobra Ka,
Speaker 3: Cobra Kai around the block they go, and so they
Speaker 3: certainly have their place, you know. And to even be
Speaker 3: a part of that culture is a is a gift
Speaker 3: and a blessing and we don't take we don't take
Speaker 3: for granted there there really isn't anything very much like that.
Speaker 3: You're absolutely right. We're gathering the proverbial rosebuds while we can,
Speaker 3: and you know, we got the fiftieth coming up, so
Speaker 3: that should provide us with a whole bunch of other events.
Speaker 3: I'm thinking, you know, paramount of course stuff in the
Speaker 3: works definitely and we'll see what happens. So we're looking
Speaker 3: forward to being alive for that.
Speaker 2: Jenna mentioned, you know at the beginning of this that
Speaker 2: you do have a such a deep history with the show,
Speaker 2: because I mean, you went to school, you went to
Speaker 2: school for performing arts, musical theater.
Speaker 3: I went to Professional Children's School, which was different from Performing.
Speaker 2: Artshame was model.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so with performing arts, which I actually lived across
Speaker 3: the street from the original and forty six between Broad
Speaker 3: six and then it moved, i want to say, across
Speaker 3: to the north and further further west. That was a
Speaker 3: conservatory of sorts where they taught the arts, and one
Speaker 3: it was not supposed to work while going to that school.
Speaker 3: Now PCs Professional Children's School was designed for kids that
Speaker 3: were in the business or who and or whose parents
Speaker 3: were and traveled with their parents so they they had
Speaker 3: tutors and worked through correspondence. So that's with that school.
Speaker 3: It was for the professional child. If you will and yeah,
Speaker 3: so I go way back and Jeff may he rest
Speaker 3: in peace conaway. He went to one of the rival schools, Quintanos,
Speaker 3: which wasn't as strict as PCs. It was kind of
Speaker 3: you know, you phoned in. It was crazy. And my
Speaker 3: dear dear friend k Cole, who played Maggie and chorus line, Oh,
Speaker 3: I was just with just a couple of hours ago.
Speaker 3: We're doing a project together. She went to Quintanos. She
Speaker 3: got by by the skin of her teeth too, And
Speaker 3: it was very tough. They they were very hard on
Speaker 3: us and as they prepared us for college and and
Speaker 3: I actually then went to college. I gra In fact,
Speaker 3: I graduated a year late because I thro the course
Speaker 3: of four years, I had failed a history course, an
Speaker 3: English course, in geometry course course. So I basically had
Speaker 3: to take my senior year over again, or I took
Speaker 3: my junior No, it was a senior year exactly over again.
Speaker 3: So but I did graduate, and uh and got into
Speaker 3: Carnegie Mellon University and the class of seventy three it
Speaker 3: started out with sixty five people and only four of
Speaker 3: us graduated, so that was also wow school to go to.
Speaker 3: And and still uh, so I wanted that. I wanted
Speaker 3: that sense of formal education. I wanted to be completion.
Speaker 3: Not not that that necessarily helps you get the gig,
Speaker 3: but it's just nice to have that for yourself. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 3: to have that cheap skin for myself. So but yes,
Speaker 3: I I you know, I've been doing it since I
Speaker 3: was the kid, since I was eleven years years old,
Speaker 3: and I was active in community theater in my hometown
Speaker 3: in Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And in fifty nine I had
Speaker 3: done a production of Dark at the Top of the Stairs,
Speaker 3: playing Sunny Flood in that play, and there was an
Speaker 3: aspiring playwright from New York by the name of Charles E.
Speaker 3: Miller Chuck Miller, who, because he was a playwright, he
Speaker 3: needed to pay the rent. He came to the Fulton
Speaker 3: Theater where the play was being done to run lights
Speaker 3: because I had to make a living. He took a
Speaker 3: liking to my mother and myself, and he told my
Speaker 3: mom that one day he was going to get me
Speaker 3: on Broadway. And I was always looking for daddy because
Speaker 3: my parents were separated and divorced, so I would latch
Speaker 3: onto any.
Speaker 2: Male mailing area.
Speaker 3: And two years later, summer sixty one, Chuck was friendly
Speaker 3: with the secretary of the producer of Bye Bye Birdie,
Speaker 3: the first rock and roll musical, and Chuck became aware
Speaker 3: of the fact that the young boy playing Randolph McAfee
Speaker 3: and by by Bertie Johnny Borden was leaving to do
Speaker 3: a new play called Milk and Honey with Molly Pecan,
Speaker 3: and so that role was going to become available, and
Speaker 3: Chuck told this secretary, Bob Fagan said, I got the
Speaker 3: guy for you. So called my mom. In the next day,
Speaker 3: I took a train into New York and I never
Speaker 3: went home. I auditioned for the piece and then went
Speaker 3: to work right away. That was a Wednesday, and I
Speaker 3: went on like that following Saturday. Actually, oh my god.
Speaker 2: In fact, it was.
Speaker 3: Supposed to be that following Monday, and my mom went
Speaker 3: home for that weekend. And that that's when I started
Speaker 3: the professional career. And I do this because professional is
Speaker 3: really not whether you're being paid, in my estimation, whether
Speaker 3: you're mad or have an agent or have union representation.
Speaker 3: It's how you behave on the field. So but my
Speaker 3: my anniversary, my sixty fourth year anniversary of being a
Speaker 3: member of Afters Equity was this past September. First Wow,
Speaker 3: I had joined the cab in August to buy by
Speaker 3: Bertie in August of that year, and then got my
Speaker 3: equity card and went on the road. Did the last
Speaker 3: month on Broadway, and then went on the road with
Speaker 3: Bertie and with Kate. That's how I met ky Cole.
Speaker 2: She was in the show and that's amazing.
Speaker 3: We finished the first national tour and then did the
Speaker 3: Vegas Company summer set of sixty two, and then that
Speaker 3: fall I had auditioned for Oliver, which was coming into Broadway.
Speaker 3: I had a broken arm fell off my cousin Shetlin
Speaker 3: writing Bareback, so but I auditioned with a broken arm,
Speaker 3: didn't get the gig. However, about two months later they
Speaker 3: were replacing two of the kids pre Broadway. I auditioned
Speaker 3: again after having gotten the role of Tom, who appears
Speaker 3: at the end of Camelot, and that was going out
Speaker 3: on tour. I had actually gotten that gig and had
Speaker 3: a call back for Oliver, and I convinced my mom
Speaker 3: to let me go to that callback because it was
Speaker 3: coming back into New York. It was going to be
Speaker 3: a Broadway show. Okay, there you'll go. And I got
Speaker 3: that gig. It turned down the role of Tom and
Speaker 3: Camelot and they flew me to Detroit, and then from
Speaker 3: Detroit we did Toronto. This is before Davy Jones got
Speaker 3: into the show. Wow, I was in Toronto, that's when
Speaker 3: Davey joined, and then we came into New York January
Speaker 3: sixty three. Laid it to the end of till about
Speaker 3: September of sixty three. I left the show to understudy
Speaker 3: Barry Gordon in the National two or thousand Clowns. And
Speaker 3: had I not left the show Oliver at the time
Speaker 3: that I did, I would have accompanied my Oliver buddies
Speaker 3: that February of sixty four onto the Ed Sullivan Show
Speaker 3: that the Beatles first appeared.
Speaker 2: Oh my myself, there's not enough foresight in the world.
Speaker 4: No, no, you can't. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: When you say you started young, like you were just
Speaker 2: gig after gig after gig, No, what are you failed
Speaker 2: worth of?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I as show business.
Speaker 3: I spoke the same friend.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you didn't have time for school. You're an entertainer.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't get it.
Speaker 4: Unbelievable. Wow, what a career, even pre Grease Yes, oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, which also brings me we'll get there. Just
Speaker 2: how good every single person is in Greece. But it's
Speaker 2: like just your your journey alone getting there shows why,
Speaker 2: like the caliber of talent, how stacked that cast was,
Speaker 2: every which way the camera looked. You're going to be
Speaker 2: seeing somebody who is so good at what they're doing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like I said, Jeff and I grew up together,
Speaker 3: he was.
Speaker 2: He was.
Speaker 3: In fact when I first saw the show. That's a
Speaker 3: whole other story. He was playing Zuko. He was the best.
Speaker 3: He was an amazing because he was Zuko in real life.
Speaker 3: He really was. And so the first time I saw
Speaker 3: it was blown away and Jeff and I, like I said,
Speaker 3: growing up, he was kind of a bad boy, and
Speaker 3: I kind of envied him and was angry with him
Speaker 3: because he was so wonderful and good looking and played
Speaker 3: the guitar and not fair.
Speaker 2: It's not fair.
Speaker 3: Not fair. And then we wound up becoming fast and
Speaker 3: famous friends when we did. But also we had actually
Speaker 3: done the show together. I think I did it with him. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I did do it with him, uh for a while,
Speaker 3: and then he left when I had first done the show. Yeah,
Speaker 3: he was. He was playing Zuko, and I came in
Speaker 3: to replace Michael Lembeck who was playing Sonny who had
Speaker 3: broken his ankle. And I was only there for a
Speaker 3: short time, and then they laid me off in the
Speaker 3: end of that summer. I then rejoined the cast, replacing
Speaker 3: Michael when when the show came out here to California
Speaker 3: for the last ten and a half months. But but
Speaker 3: getting back to what you had said about the caliber
Speaker 3: folks not only from the movie. And you got Jamie
Speaker 3: Donnelly who was like Rocky Horror Picture Show, George m
Speaker 3: Michael who at fact Michael had joined the cast of Grease.
Speaker 3: He was an understudy for the last month or two
Speaker 3: in Toronto when I was doing the show there. And
Speaker 3: Uh Kelly Ward, whose parents were in the business and
Speaker 3: and and were wonderful dancers and producers and directors. And
Speaker 3: like I say, Jeff and Johnny two who had been
Speaker 3: on Broadway a bunch of time, played duty in the
Speaker 3: first national trope. But but and you had the Barry Bostwicks,
Speaker 3: and you had the uh Eileen Grafts and h who
Speaker 3: played Walter Bobby and Jerry Zachs and and and Adrian
Speaker 3: Barbou who did the stage play, who also had of
Speaker 3: incredible histories in the theater, film, and television. So it's
Speaker 3: been packed through the years with those that kind of
Speaker 3: caliber in all the companies that have been produced, all
Speaker 3: the professional companies right and even beyond you know, so
Speaker 3: just say even like some blischool productions are yeah, like
Speaker 3: the talent, the caliber of talent.
Speaker 2: I'm wondering if you remember because you were in trench
Speaker 2: in the theater community pre Greece happening when you hear about,
Speaker 2: you know, a new show being done or there's workshops
Speaker 2: going on, Like what is your first memory of hearing
Speaker 2: about Greece the stage show this production?
Speaker 3: Sure, so in the summer of seventy two when Greece
Speaker 3: Greece had started Kingston minds in Chicago actually, and it
Speaker 3: then moved off Broadway and then on to Broadway. Just
Speaker 3: occurs to me. Actually Chicago plays heavy in this because
Speaker 3: in the summer of seventy two, it was my the
Speaker 3: summer before my senior year of college, and my girlfriend
Speaker 3: at the time and I got jobs with the Chicago
Speaker 3: Free Street Theater, and the Street Theater brought live theater
Speaker 3: into neighborhoods, into affluent to squalid neighborhoods all up and
Speaker 3: down Illinois amazing. From Winnetka down to East Saint Louis.
Speaker 3: We would travel in this show mobile. It was a
Speaker 3: huge semi opened up and then we the actors would
Speaker 3: erect the stage, no, do two original gigs that we
Speaker 3: wrote musicals, unfold and go to another gig. So I
Speaker 3: did that for the summer of seventy two.
Speaker 2: What a great experience truly.
Speaker 3: But then into Europe during the fall we were sponsored
Speaker 3: by the Bograd International Theater Festival in Yugoslavia, toured all
Speaker 3: over Yugoslavia the Bograd Pierre Cardan sponsored us in Paris
Speaker 3: at his theater, the espos Kardan, and then we did
Speaker 3: a week in Brussels. And for that that that period
Speaker 3: of time, Carnegie Mellon gave me credit for the work.
Speaker 3: So I didn't have to go to my.
Speaker 2: N some history classes you were not going to pass.
Speaker 3: Yes, right exactly, and so and so in that company,
Speaker 3: the Street Theater Company, I befriended a fellow by the
Speaker 3: name of John Lansing, And after we came back from Europe,
Speaker 3: they took us down to Rockford, Illinois. I want to
Speaker 3: say that December, part of that January to teach theater
Speaker 3: arts to certain targets in Rockford, Frozer behinds off in
Speaker 3: teaching theater arts.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 3: And then I went back to school. So I go
Speaker 3: back to school for the second semester, and I had
Speaker 3: a bunch of friends of mine who had been to
Speaker 3: school out here in California and had transferred to Carnegie,
Speaker 3: and they kept telling me how much I reminded them
Speaker 3: of their friend Michael Lembeck. Looked like we did the
Speaker 3: same shows, the same roles in the same shows. Okay,
Speaker 3: So Grease now comes through Pittsburgh on tour, and my
Speaker 3: friend John Lansing is now one of their understudies. He
Speaker 3: understudies Zuko teen Agel and Roger those two or three,
Speaker 3: Vince Fontete, whoever. And he calls me, and this is
Speaker 3: before cell phones. I don't know how we got in
Speaker 3: touch with it, but I do have an image of
Speaker 3: myself on the phone downstairs from the gym where the
Speaker 3: entire student body would meet every morning for a class
Speaker 3: called dynamics. It was yoga and voice, and then we
Speaker 3: would all go off our different disciplines. And I remember
Speaker 3: being on the phone talking. He says, you got to
Speaker 3: come down and see this play. Grease. Okay, So I
Speaker 3: go down and see this play Grease, and out on
Speaker 3: the stage backwards comes Michael Lembeck and he turns around
Speaker 3: with the first Sonny's first line, son of a bitch.
Speaker 3: I got old lady Lynch for English, and he hates
Speaker 3: my guts. And I look at this guy and it
Speaker 3: was like watching myself. My friends were right, I do
Speaker 3: look like this guy. He was brilliant, brilliant. Sonny got
Speaker 3: on the phone with my agent the next day. I said, listen,
Speaker 3: they're going to be other companies, they're gonna be replacements.
Speaker 3: I have to have a general audition for this within
Speaker 3: a period of time a week, two weeks. I remembered
Speaker 3: it one way, and then recently came across ticket stubs
Speaker 3: and play bills from the actual time. And I go
Speaker 3: down and see the plays. And I called my agent
Speaker 3: the next day after having seen it. I told him
Speaker 3: that within like two weeks or so, they I get
Speaker 3: a call, You're going in for a general audition. So
Speaker 3: I booked a flight because when it was thirty five
Speaker 3: dollars a flight from Pittsburgh to Laguardi or JFK, wherever
Speaker 3: it was. And I go in for a general audition.
Speaker 3: That's a whole other story in and of itself. And
Speaker 3: I auditioned for Pat Birch and Folks and Pat Pat
Speaker 3: and I had worked together in sixty seven and sixty eight.
Speaker 3: She cast me as Schroeder and you're a good man,
Speaker 3: Charlie Brown form this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so she knew my work.
Speaker 3: So I did the general, went back to school, and
Speaker 3: then got a call a couple of weeks later. They
Speaker 3: want to see you back again for a callback because
Speaker 3: Michael Lenbeck at the end of Act one has broken
Speaker 3: his ankle. They need to replacement. Immediately. I go in
Speaker 3: for the callback, I get the gig. They want to
Speaker 3: take me up to Toronto right away again with Toronto
Speaker 3: and Detroit. This is it. So I said, look, I
Speaker 3: got two weeks of school to finish my senior years. Okay,
Speaker 3: back and finished. We're gonna put our understudy on Tommy Gerard.
Speaker 3: You go back and finish school, and then we'll have
Speaker 3: you come up to Detroit where the production will be
Speaker 3: at the time, and you'll take over. You'll you'll understudy
Speaker 3: the understudy. Basically, fine, go up there and for three
Speaker 3: weeks I'm studying the role of Sonny because if anything
Speaker 3: happens to anybody else, Tommy would slip into that role whatever,
Speaker 3: and then I'd go on as Sonny. So now in
Speaker 3: this production you have Mary Lou Henter playing Marty, Johnny
Speaker 3: was playing Duty, Jerry Zachs, the very successful famous Broadway director,
Speaker 3: he was playing Kinicki, Jeff was doing Zuko, Ellen Marsh
Speaker 3: was playing Marty. Let you know, uh, and others.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 3: So I'm working backstage. I'm doing the numbers and the wings,
Speaker 3: and I go to Jerry Zach's. At one point I say, hey, Jerry,
Speaker 3: is it possible for you to feign illness so that
Speaker 3: Tommy Gerard can go on as Kanicki and I can
Speaker 3: slip into the roles. I just want to play it once.
Speaker 3: He said, well, let me ask the stage managers if
Speaker 3: that if they'd be up for it. Well, I knew
Speaker 3: that wasn't going to happen, And surely he came back
Speaker 3: and he said and they said, no, okay, I got it.
Speaker 3: About three days later, May nineteenth of nineteen seventy three,
Speaker 3: I get a phone call in my hotel room from
Speaker 3: Hal Halverson, the stage manager. Jerry zax is sick.
Speaker 4: You're going on his Sonny.
Speaker 3: Now I contend that it was probably set up, but
Speaker 3: they didn't want me to be bruise. So I step
Speaker 3: on stage at the Fisher Theater in Detroit, May nineteenth,
Speaker 3: nineteen seventy three, and four years to the day later,
Speaker 3: May nineteenth of nineteen seventy seven, I get the role
Speaker 3: of duty in the movie. Wow, that's how that story ends.
Speaker 2: Crazy.
Speaker 3: So then, what, like I said before, after the three weeks,
Speaker 3: I was laid off because Michael came back, and now
Speaker 3: I went back. Oh, they actually let me go back
Speaker 3: before that to partake in my graduation ceremonies.
Speaker 2: That's so nice of them to tell you that ever happened.
Speaker 3: Now now negotiates for stuff like that, but this was
Speaker 3: just that they were really great and they appreciated I
Speaker 3: guess what I did, and they were you know, they
Speaker 3: gifted me that. So then I was laid off. I
Speaker 3: had three hundred dollars to my name. My girlfriend, who
Speaker 3: wasn't given that work study went back to the Chicago
Speaker 3: Street Theater and that particular year she sort of said,
Speaker 3: you know, I think I want to spend the summer
Speaker 3: by myself. And so I was heartbroken. Went back to
Speaker 3: New York where my mother lived in a one bedroom
Speaker 3: apartment that I had left, you know, four years before.
Speaker 3: But thank God for her because she was my my net,
Speaker 3: my cushion. Had been with my mom in a one
Speaker 3: bedroom apartment in midtown Manhattan, And until I was able
Speaker 3: to kind of get on my feet, took a job
Speaker 3: as a a a in an answering service stand by
Speaker 3: answering service.
Speaker 2: Had to make a buck, right, yep, survival, that's right.
Speaker 3: Until the end of that summer, I got two summer
Speaker 3: stock gigs at the Effort to Star Playhouse and near
Speaker 3: my hometown of Pennsylvania, did what the Butler saw and
Speaker 3: butterflies are free. And while I was there again another
Speaker 3: phone booth, I get a call from Hal Halverson. The
Speaker 3: States were saying, Michael Lembeck is leaving the show in
Speaker 3: LA and we want you to come out and finish
Speaker 3: the tour.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 5: So they flew me out to California to do the
Speaker 5: last matinee at the Schubert Theater of the show and
Speaker 5: in the audience that day was a friend.
Speaker 3: Of Mary lou Henterers who took slides, remember slides of
Speaker 3: the entire show and then sold them to us. I
Speaker 3: bought an entire carousel slides, not only of me, but
Speaker 3: of the whole show. So I've got these amazing side
Speaker 3: with playing Rizzo and Bostwick playing playing because they flipped.
Speaker 3: You know, the deal was that Boston would come out
Speaker 3: to La with which happens we went to New York
Speaker 3: for that time, and and Jimmy Canning, who was the
Speaker 3: original duty had come out to LA. So I've got
Speaker 3: all these wonderful slides Jerry, Lou Mary Low and Jerry
Speaker 3: and Johnny and Roger, great great slides. And in fact
Speaker 3: that you get think Indeedie's book Frenchy scrap Book, there
Speaker 3: might be some of those photos there. I know there
Speaker 3: were some in Randall's book, the Director's Notebook on on
Speaker 3: on the movie, and and so just in just that.
Speaker 3: So I then replaced him, did the last ten ten
Speaker 3: and a half months, and that was from the end.
Speaker 3: They wanted me to do a summer stock production of it,
Speaker 3: which then ended up to be an extension of that
Speaker 3: that tour. Instead of doing it myself and the guy
Speaker 3: that played Vince Fontagne at the time, my friend Barry Vaigon,
Speaker 3: we decided to take another show together, El Grande de
Speaker 3: Coca Cola, which we did, which is it's a spooful
Speaker 3: on Latin American cabaret where this character Papa Peppe hernandez
Speaker 3: off his relatives as different acts from South America costumes,
Speaker 3: and it was really seedy and grungy, like you would
Speaker 3: find in a real city American cabaret. But they had
Speaker 3: done this originally at Plaza Plaza nine, which is a
Speaker 3: little theater underneath the Plaza Hotel the park, and it
Speaker 3: starred Ron Silver and and and Jeff Goldblum who was Meatloafs,
Speaker 3: one of Meatloafs singers, and some others, and we decided
Speaker 3: to take it, but they took us down to Mexico
Speaker 3: to do it. This this guy Sergio, who Mexico on
Speaker 3: its ear. It was like selling ice to the Eskimos
Speaker 3: over their head or they were offended. Some month Mexico
Speaker 3: and then we're gonna close us down. But then they
Speaker 3: decided to take us to Acapulco for a month. Oh
Speaker 3: my god, Oh that didn't work there, But then everybody
Speaker 3: else was out on tour with Greece. But it was
Speaker 3: kind of a kind of a cool break.
Speaker 2: So at what point were you did you hear they're
Speaker 2: making a movie and like, you know, was it an agent? Oh,
Speaker 2: you have an audition for this? Were they auditioning everybody
Speaker 2: who had been in a company of Greece.
Speaker 3: They didn't want to see any of us from the
Speaker 3: play You're too old. Oh, so we kind of put
Speaker 3: that to rest until we got.
Speaker 4: Auditions right right, And.
Speaker 3: I went into audition and the role of Duty, I thought,
Speaker 3: I'm not Duty, I'm sunny if anything. Well, the way
Speaker 3: it turned out is in the film, Duty is really sunny. Uh,
Speaker 3: Sonny is really Roger and interesting, really Duty.
Speaker 2: So how did that happen? Do you know why they
Speaker 2: liked the name?
Speaker 3: Putsy and Bronte Woodard me he rest in peace wrote
Speaker 3: it that way, and that's just the way it rolled out,
Speaker 3: got it, you know, the Roger character. We also didn't
Speaker 3: sing the songs now as Duty in the movie. I
Speaker 3: wouldn't have sung magic changes in the play. He does.
Speaker 3: The magic changes is in the film. It's in the
Speaker 3: background during the dance contest. Mooning wasn't wasn't played either.
Speaker 3: It was that's Roger's song that was also used as background.
Speaker 3: And Freddie My Love, which Marty sings is not in
Speaker 3: the in the film either, although again in the background somewhere,
Speaker 3: but so we were told we weren't going to and
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden we had these auditions, and
Speaker 3: so remember we sang, and I remember I sang blue
Speaker 3: Swede shoes and did it the way I had done
Speaker 3: it for my audition for the play. Uh.
Speaker 2: And how many people in that room were the same
Speaker 2: people you had auditioned for if any? I mean there
Speaker 2: were obviously that the play.
Speaker 3: No nobody, well Jim, I don't know if Jim Jacobs
Speaker 3: is in a room or not, because maybe by that
Speaker 3: time there was like a split between Alan Carr and
Speaker 3: those guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, got it, okay, And so there was really no
Speaker 2: Pat pat pitch right.
Speaker 3: Okay, choreographed She she was, she was in the room.
Speaker 3: And so we sang, we read, and then they brought
Speaker 3: us together to read and sing together, and I remember,
Speaker 3: I think I remember reading with Dedie. And then the
Speaker 3: last thing we had to do, this is kind of cool.
Speaker 3: The last thing we had to do was they lined
Speaker 3: up the guys on one side of the room and
Speaker 3: the women on the other side of the room, and
Speaker 3: our task was the guy had to come out to
Speaker 3: the center and the girl had to come out and
Speaker 3: you had to dance with her and woo her off
Speaker 3: the stage, off the blank space. So in the play
Speaker 3: of Greece, Sonny again, the role that I played and
Speaker 3: that I am body in the film, doesn't sing a
Speaker 3: song and he doesn't dance. As I understand it, the
Speaker 3: fellow who actually played Sonny originally Jimbarelli, wasn't a great singer,
Speaker 3: wasn't a great dancer, but he was a great type
Speaker 3: and great type. He was a real wonderful Sonny. So
Speaker 3: during the dance contest in the play, he sits off
Speaker 3: to the side and gets drunk, and then he collapses
Speaker 3: at the end of the play, at the end of
Speaker 3: the scene, and then stumbles up the stairs. Now put
Speaker 3: that aside for a second. In the play, don't know
Speaker 3: if you know this, cha cha who in the movie
Speaker 3: was a hot latina played by our dear late Annette Charles.
Speaker 3: Right in the play, she's not a hot latina. She
Speaker 3: is a young girl of size, not very good looking,
Speaker 3: with these Dolly Madison curls and a lot of rouge.
Speaker 3: Because that's the joke in the end of that one,
Speaker 3: when Rizzo and Kaniki have a fight at the park
Speaker 3: and Rizzo asks Zuko to the dance when she was
Speaker 3: going to be going with Kiniki. Kiniki then is approached
Speaker 3: by Sonny, Hey, should we pick up a couple of
Speaker 3: girls for the dance? And Zuka says with what a
Speaker 3: meat hook? And there's a laugh, and Kiniki says, Nah,
Speaker 3: I've got a hot date from across town. She's a bombshell.
Speaker 3: That's what we're left with. At two opens up at
Speaker 3: the dance, everybody's there. All of a sudden, spotlight hits
Speaker 3: Kiniki coming in with his hot date. But she ain't
Speaker 3: a hot date. It's the joke. She's later referred to
Speaker 3: in the scene as oh, you mean that gorilla there?
Speaker 3: The girl put her nose over there. Oh I thought
Speaker 3: you was the steam table ladies. So and that's that's
Speaker 3: not used in the film, right, it is in the play.
Speaker 3: So these days they still cast a hot gal looking
Speaker 3: the dancer, which in the play was that she was
Speaker 3: the dance captain Kathy moss Man dance cat. She was
Speaker 3: a great dancer. She has to be because they still yeah,
Speaker 3: so okay, backing up now to the dance contest, and
Speaker 3: at the end where Sonny gets dronk, he doesn't dance
Speaker 3: and he climbs up the stairs and he's encountered by
Speaker 3: this this girl that picked her nose the steam table,
Speaker 3: and he takes a look at her at one point,
Speaker 3: actually he goes up under her dress. Is he's coming
Speaker 3: up because she's standing at the head of the stairs.
Speaker 3: It comes up under her dress. Ah, and he runs off.
Speaker 3: And then she comes down the stairs and she's encountered
Speaker 3: by Eugene and they see each other where everybody is
Speaker 3: going off with a couple. There's a moment that they
Speaker 3: have and then they each pass by, each passed by
Speaker 3: by the nerd. And that's the poignant on a sweet
Speaker 3: part Boom. We're seem so at the audition, not knowing
Speaker 3: what the screen play was going to be like. At
Speaker 3: the audition, they line us up, we each are to
Speaker 3: come out, and I hang back, and I hang back
Speaker 3: because I'm looking at the girls on the side and
Speaker 3: the girl kind of towards the end of the line,
Speaker 3: who was not as pretty as the rest of them.
Speaker 3: I'm putting it out there. Hang back, baby, hang back,
Speaker 3: stay back. I want you to be my partner in this.
Speaker 3: I also decided I was going to play like I've
Speaker 3: had too much to drink and I grabbed myself. A
Speaker 3: styrofoam cup comes down to me and another guy and
Speaker 3: a gal and this other, this gal that I'm hoping
Speaker 3: will hang back. Sure enough she does. So it's the
Speaker 3: two of us with the last to come out, and
Speaker 3: I stumble out. I take one last sip of the cup,
Speaker 3: and I put the cup in my cuff of my
Speaker 3: jeans and say, and I grab her right and now
Speaker 3: I'm holding her when we start to dance, and I
Speaker 3: moved my hand down to her. I start to pinch
Speaker 3: your bum. She takes my hand, She grabs my hand
Speaker 3: and brings it around and puts my hand on my
Speaker 3: own bum bum, thinking it's her bum.
Speaker 4: Perfect.
Speaker 3: You gotta stand apart, you gotta boat.
Speaker 1: Make them remember you, you know, Yeah, exactly incredible.
Speaker 2: So from from the Cassie you met Dedie that day?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I probably I probably met her maybe even a.
Speaker 2: Day or so before, okay, or the lad the time.
Speaker 3: Before we had we had done. And then the last
Speaker 3: thing I remember is that they were all released, The
Speaker 3: girls were released, and we were the last. It was Jeff, Kelly,
Speaker 3: Michael and myself and the people behind the table, Alan
Speaker 3: Carr and Branda and says, you go up there by
Speaker 3: the piano just hang out for a little while. So
Speaker 3: we went up there and we hung while they were talking.
Speaker 3: And the next thing you know, I guess it was
Speaker 3: Allan that came by and said, you're our tea, you're you,
Speaker 3: you are our t birds. Wow. How special they told
Speaker 3: us right then and there a release.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so nice to know.
Speaker 3: My story was that I had just been written out
Speaker 3: of CPO Sharky the Don Rickles show. Wow, the series
Speaker 3: I had come out here on speculation, which I contended
Speaker 3: I'd never do. But I had done a pilot in
Speaker 3: seventy six.
Speaker 2: Well that was gonna be my question that you You
Speaker 2: were also auditioning and working in TV and film.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: While doing all this theater.
Speaker 3: I was doing a play in New York called Let
Speaker 3: My People Come Down at the Village the Village Gate,
Speaker 3: which was a poor man's o Calcutta. Are you familiar
Speaker 3: with o' calcutta? No? You basically performed in the nude.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, And I understudied seven guys.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. If I went on, I had this
Speaker 2: address that was like Jenna in the Spring Awakening, she
Speaker 2: covered four five different parts.
Speaker 3: But this is this is that's classy. This is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the huge hit.
Speaker 3: And I had first understudied these seven guys and it
Speaker 3: was a deal whereby it was a review, so I
Speaker 3: could go on for two or three guys at the
Speaker 3: same time and I'd get their salary plus mine.
Speaker 2: I was making a phone amazing. Yeah, this is an
Speaker 2: early and getting compensated for doing all that extra work.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So at one point in time, the union said, okay,
Speaker 3: you don't have to have understudies apart from the cast.
Speaker 3: You can use one of your cast members to understudy
Speaker 3: if you want the same little money. So they came
Speaker 3: to me, they said, we're either going to fire you
Speaker 3: or make you a permanent member of the cast. I said, well,
Speaker 3: I'd still want to do it, but you're gonna have
Speaker 3: to give me all the comedy numbers and allow me
Speaker 3: to stay clad. They let me do that. So I
Speaker 3: was doing that gig and I get this pilot or
Speaker 3: I auditioned for this pilot called Best Friends that was
Speaker 3: directed by Jerry Pass. He was Jerry the dentist on
Speaker 3: The Dick Van Dyke Show and subsequently directed every single
Speaker 3: episode of Happy Days. Wow. Yeah, huge career. And I
Speaker 3: auditioned for it and I didn't get it at first,
Speaker 3: And a week later, in the middle of the afternoon,
Speaker 3: I get a phone call saying they fired the guy
Speaker 3: that they hired. They needed to get on the next
Speaker 3: plane out to California. You're replacing this guy.
Speaker 2: How many times does this happen to you?
Speaker 3: A bunch like that? So they're on plane next day. No,
Speaker 3: that day, get old plane and did the pilot and
Speaker 3: it didn't sell. But Jerry Paris said, look, come out here.
Speaker 3: You can stay with me and my family in the
Speaker 3: Palisades and until you get on your feet, because you'll
Speaker 3: work out here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I'd met a couple of casting directors when I was
Speaker 3: out here at the time doing the pilot. Pilot was
Speaker 3: produced by Alan Sack Alan Sachs, who, along with Gabe Kaplan,
Speaker 3: produced and developed Cotter these webs that we and so uh,
Speaker 3: he said, do that now again. I contended, I shouldn't
Speaker 3: do that. I need to have a job, but you know,
Speaker 3: it felt right, So I gave up my apartment and
Speaker 3: sub led it to my friend Danny Jacobson, who is
Speaker 3: responsible for creating and producing little TV shows like Mad
Speaker 3: About You, Two Men, a Gallon of Pizza. You know.
Speaker 3: He played Kinicki in a Greece company and then went
Speaker 3: on to Fame and Fortune and.
Speaker 2: It was like interacted with Greece in some way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were they were blessed. So I came out
Speaker 3: to California and within a week and a half I
Speaker 3: went on my first audition, and that was to replace
Speaker 3: Jeffrey Kramer, who played the He was the deputy and
Speaker 3: Jaws and the first Jaws who throws up on the beach,
Speaker 3: and he did the pilot. Then they replay with me.
Speaker 3: I did thirteen episodes of Sharky and I was on
Speaker 3: top of the world. I mean, the first audition and
Speaker 3: I get a gig. But by the end of that
Speaker 3: thirteen weeks, I wasn't a happy camper. They weren't writing
Speaker 3: for us, and I was really despondent. And so Jeffrey
Speaker 3: played an Italian recruit. They replaced him with me an
Speaker 3: Italian recruit and the Italian guy. Thing didn't work. When
Speaker 3: Don would go down the line and break the Polish
Speaker 3: guy and the Jewish guy and the Black guy and
Speaker 3: the Norwegian guy, he got laught. He come to the
Speaker 3: Italian guy, we weren't getting He said done. I said done.
Speaker 3: Say something about my Italian this and he looked at
Speaker 3: me and said, hey, I got family a kid, and
Speaker 3: I got that. And now on my birthday that year,
Speaker 3: we hadn't found out whether we were being picked up
Speaker 3: yet or not for CPO Sharky, I get a call
Speaker 3: from my agent the show's being picked up, but they're
Speaker 3: not picked Can.
Speaker 4: You hasn't that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: On my birthday and I was that night and the
Speaker 3: producer's son came walking in because he was in the
Speaker 3: in the in the in the series. I said, your
Speaker 3: dad gave me a really nice birthday gift today. So
Speaker 3: I go running down to Jerry Paris, who was at
Speaker 3: Paramount at the time doing Blansky's Beauties television series with
Speaker 3: my pal Karen Kay who had gone to college with
Speaker 3: Carnegie with actually, and I cried on his shoulder and
Speaker 3: he said, look, you know, when I was a kid,
Speaker 3: I was doing The Untouchables with Robert Stack long before
Speaker 3: your time. Guys. They wrote me out and I was devastated.
Speaker 3: But had that not happened, I wouldn't have gotten a
Speaker 3: job on the Dick Van Dyke Show as a regular,
Speaker 3: which led to my directing career. Because Sheldon Leonard, the
Speaker 3: producer gave him a gig directing, and the rest with
Speaker 3: him was history, because he wound up directing every episode
Speaker 3: of Happy Is And I said, yeah, but you know,
Speaker 3: at that time, the light at the end of the
Speaker 3: tunnel looks like a truck coming at you. Yeah, consolation,
Speaker 3: no council. But had that not happened, had I not
Speaker 3: been written out of Sharky, I wouldn't have been available
Speaker 3: to do Greece of the Door Closes the Door Open.
Speaker 1: Did you guys know that when Greece was happening, when
Speaker 1: you guys were filming the movie, that it was going
Speaker 1: to be such a sensation?
Speaker 4: Did you have any kind of not a clue?
Speaker 3: Now, we knew that the play had become the longest
Speaker 3: running play in Broadway history at the time. Yeah, so
Speaker 3: we knew we had a great template, if you.
Speaker 2: Will right, No one knew it worked like the people
Speaker 2: loved the music, the show was great, like.
Speaker 1: Yes, and then it's pa part of the chemistry of
Speaker 1: your cast and the talent that was there, and like
Speaker 1: it was just so electric to watch it.
Speaker 4: I can imagine that while filming it, it felt like that.
Speaker 1: Whether it was a hit or not, you know, the
Speaker 1: the journey you guys said was probably incredible.
Speaker 3: You hit upon something that I I'll tell you I've
Speaker 3: contended for quite some time. First of all, well, you know,
Speaker 3: along with what the piece was originally is to play.
Speaker 3: The music was wonderful. Pat's dance was great. You love
Speaker 3: John and you loved looking at Olivia. The camera loved them.
Speaker 3: So I contend that one of the reasons why folks
Speaker 3: not such as yourself, who are sort of savvy to
Speaker 3: the elements that can make for a success John Q
Speaker 3: public who knows that they liked the singing, they liked
Speaker 3: the dancing like looking at John, Olivia, etcetce, but can't
Speaker 3: fully articulate something else about it that they like. They
Speaker 3: can't fully let what it is, I think is the camaraderie.
Speaker 3: It's why you say, the the the the way we
Speaker 3: got along with each other like Grandma lamalama.
Speaker 2: Kad yes exactly.
Speaker 3: That spills over and people watching love to see people
Speaker 3: getting along. They love to see the rockets kick in
Speaker 3: time they add applause. I think that element helps to
Speaker 3: preserve to keep all of us and the piece relevant
Speaker 3: through the.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you can feel that as an audience member,
Speaker 2: as if you were regardless of when you're encountering this film, right,
Speaker 2: you feel and it felt like you could speak to this,
Speaker 2: but that you all did have a great time with
Speaker 2: each other. You all were having the best time of
Speaker 2: your lives. We juste you were together making this thing.
Speaker 3: We did and we still do. And you know when
Speaker 3: we go out and these signing gigs, it's like, you know,
Speaker 3: reunion time. There's nothing like it. Yeah, all still get
Speaker 3: along and we're sad at those those that we have lost,
Speaker 3: but hope that they're looking down on this blessing us
Speaker 3: as we go and we're savoring every every single moment.
Speaker 4: Yeah you can.
Speaker 1: We always ask people on the podcast who were involved
Speaker 1: with Glee, of course, which we did Greece on the
Speaker 1: show as well, what is what is the feeling that.
Speaker 4: Lee leaves you with? But you're remiss not to ask
Speaker 4: you what is the feeling that Grease lys you it?
Speaker 3: Grateful and blessed? As I said, sometimes I sometimes it's
Speaker 3: a little surreal, and sometimes I still kind of don't
Speaker 3: get it. I mean in terms of shouldn't it be impact,
Speaker 3: shouldn't be feeling it even more in my skin?
Speaker 1: It's hard to absorb something so much bigger than you yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it truly is much bigger than just me pod cast.
Speaker 3: It really does kind of oscillate and move as an
Speaker 3: entity in and of itself, and we're sort of entire
Speaker 3: inside that nucleus, you know it. Just again, it leaves
Speaker 3: me very thankful that I have. This is my legacy,
Speaker 3: and you know, and then I'm doing okay. Oh look
Speaker 3: I got my We all have our aches and pains,
Speaker 3: but that I'm still doing okay. And you know, my
Speaker 3: wife is She's a huge contribution to not only my heart,
Speaker 3: but to our home economics. You know that has helped us.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, look, folks, we eat and sleep and poop
Speaker 3: just like the rest. We do. Just happen to have
Speaker 3: this fang that attached itself to us. YEA, yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 2: And we're all better for it. We're all better for
Speaker 2: it all you're you're right, we're all better that. You know.
Speaker 2: You your group landed at the same time, all together,
Speaker 2: in the same space to make that thing. Because as
Speaker 2: we've seen and you've seen as other musicals are made
Speaker 2: or TV show, whatever it is, people can try their
Speaker 2: hardest to make something. You just never know, and you
Speaker 2: never know if you're getting the right people at the
Speaker 2: right time, and Greece is still so important and incredible
Speaker 2: because everybody was locked in and clocked in at the
Speaker 2: exact right time to make this special thing. And I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's not very many things that I can say, you know,
Speaker 2: we're so formative to I guess my life and career,
Speaker 2: and it's like Michael Jackson and Greece, like yeah, it's
Speaker 2: like those are the things that informed us. And I think,
Speaker 2: you know, for us, and it's small. I'm not comparing
Speaker 2: us to Greece, but like in a small way, like
Speaker 2: you mentioned, like we can't feel what the show meant
Speaker 2: to people on the scale that it did, but we
Speaker 2: but we know how it our relationships feel to one
Speaker 2: another and what and that's what the show means to us,
Speaker 2: and that's what it's so special. And it's so heartening
Speaker 2: to hear you speak of Greece in a similar way
Speaker 2: because you know, I know we're going to feel that
Speaker 2: down the line as well and and continue to be
Speaker 2: proud of something that we were part of.
Speaker 6: And yeah, you yes, Beatles, uh ultimately Greece, but it
Speaker 6: was Beatles and West Side Story and sound music on
Speaker 6: the roof Forest.
Speaker 3: Line you know, for me the musicals in my life. Yeah,
Speaker 3: west Side Story, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2: Groundbreaking Yeah, and you're a part of that now history
Speaker 2: for people because you're in that list.
Speaker 3: Here we are again, I Kevin. I don't go around with.
Speaker 2: That in my mind, of course, not that you remind.
Speaker 3: Me of that. You guys remind you that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, it's good. Probably it's
Speaker 2: healthy for you not to go around with that in
Speaker 2: your head.
Speaker 1: But I think to be reminded of it, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a accomplishment.
Speaker 2: You have those things that mean that to you, and
Speaker 2: that's what Greece means to other people. So it's like
Speaker 2: that's the only way to maybe sort of understand.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when I fan boy out on people, I I
Speaker 3: have that experience that you guys are talking about having
Speaker 3: with this project. Yeah, you know I I who do
Speaker 3: I bump into? That makes me? Well Shatner, I have
Speaker 3: a whole it's like too long, but it's kind of
Speaker 3: Yang and Yang. It's crazy, but but he's one U
Speaker 3: gosh who else? H Well? Even John to this day,
Speaker 3: we you know, we text each other, we talk, we
Speaker 3: see each other occasionally, but even him and his journey,
Speaker 3: I am so enamored with his career, with the way
Speaker 3: he comports himself. He truly walks to talk. He's a
Speaker 3: very ethical guy. So when Olivia was alive, I so
Speaker 3: humbled myself. Even though we were buddies, she's still she
Speaker 3: just represented something on a on a higher level of being.
Speaker 2: If you will, you have people that mean that to you.
Speaker 4: What mean yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2: We have taken so much of your time. Thank you
Speaker 2: so much, so.
Speaker 1: Nice to meet you, Barry. It is really wonderful hearing
Speaker 1: you just reminisce about everything. It's so special and so
Speaker 1: grateful on you. Whenever you allow us to, yes, we
Speaker 1: will do it.
Speaker 3: I will, and please feel free to reach out again.
Speaker 3: Maybe my other I said our Dedy and out my
Speaker 3: other Greece compadres to Yes, that would be so grateful, Yes,
Speaker 3: in the fashion you do, and we'll take care of that,
Speaker 3: will do.
Speaker 2: Thank you so so much. It was a pleasure to
Speaker 2: meet you.
Speaker 4: So nice to meet you.
Speaker 3: Welcome, great, Thank you too. Thanks, Thank you is the word.
Speaker 3: Bye everybody.
Speaker 2: Bye, what a man, Barry Pearl, Thank you so much, seriously,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for joining us. I have a
Speaker 2: million more questions and so we may have to have
Speaker 2: him back and d and maybe we're just going to
Speaker 2: interview all of them if he's willing to help us
Speaker 2: out and get every single person, like, what a career,
Speaker 2: what a life? With a storyteller Greece just means the
Speaker 2: world to us. So thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2: I hope all of you enjoyed that, because we obviously
Speaker 2: did very much, and that's.
Speaker 4: What you really missed.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening and follow us on Instagram at and
Speaker 2: that's what you really miss pod. Make sure to write
Speaker 2: us a review and leave us five stars. See you
Speaker 2: next time,