Working Class Acts
Candid conversations with working class actors navigating the entertainment industry.
Working Class Acts
Brandon Dial
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
On this week's episode I sit down with my dear friend, and the ever-talented, Brandon Dial. We discuss everything from first steps in our creatives processes to stories about our multiple concussions.
If you're looking for handmade wooden home decor then my Etsy shop is perfect for you! For a look at my catalog go to: JohnMadWoodworking.Etsy.com
You can find more info about my work as an actor and voiceover artist on my website at: www.johnmaddaloni.com
Thanks for listening to this week's episode. Be sure to rate the show, enable automatic downloads and, if you're interested in becoming a donor, you can go to workingclassacts.com and press the support button at the top right corner of the page to donate today!
One, two, three, elephant chair. Okay. One, two, three. Saddle. Throne and saddle. One, two, three. Cushion. Cushion and night.
SPEAKER_05Ooh. Ooh.
SPEAKER_01Uh one one, two, three. Armory? Oh, apartment. Upholstery and armor. We got this.
SPEAKER_04One, two, three.
SPEAKER_01Clovers.
SPEAKER_04We're on the same fabric.
SPEAKER_01Oh, clutter. Yeah, we are on the same fabrics or whatever. Wait, what was yours? Close and cover cover? Cover. Close and cover. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. One, two, three.
SPEAKER_04She's got a couple of things.
SPEAKER_01Cotton and sheets.
SPEAKER_04Cotton sheets.
unknownI don't know.
SPEAKER_04One, two, three, bedding.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I said bed and you said bedding. Damn it.
SPEAKER_01We can get this. We got this. Okay.
SPEAKER_00One, two, three. Sleep. Pillow. Sleep? Sleep. Sleep and pillow. We got this.
SPEAKER_02One, two, three.
SPEAKER_00Cozy.
SPEAKER_02Oh. Cozy dream. Cozy dream. A cozy dream.
SPEAKER_00Cozy dream. A cozy dream. One, two, three, snore.
SPEAKER_02Nightmare.
SPEAKER_04Night and nightmare of my. I outsmarted myself. Nightmare and snore. Nightmare and snore.
SPEAKER_01Snore.
SPEAKER_04I got something.
SPEAKER_02Something stupid.
SPEAKER_04Mine is really dumb too. Let's see. One, two, three, sleep apnea.
SPEAKER_01I'm counting. That counts. That counts. That counts. That counts. I can't believe we both did this sleep apnea.
SPEAKER_04We're like, uh. This is never gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Working Class Acts.
SPEAKER_01Hello, and welcome to the Working Class Acts Podcast. I'm your host and your only host. John Mattaloni. You just heard him a little there crying for help into the void. Brandon is an actor from New York. No, not from Wait, no, you're not from New York City. No. No. Brandon is an actor in New York City. We're both here in the New York City. He's been at the American Repertory Theater, the Public Theater, and Berkshire Theater Group on screen. You may have seen him in some commercials. But most recently you can catch him on 72 hours on Netflix. I am here with my very good friend and cohort member at NYU, Brandon Dial. Hi, buddy. How you doing?
SPEAKER_04I'm I'm good, you know? Good, dude. I'm better now that I'm here. Buddy.
SPEAKER_01It's been a little while. We haven't seen each other. Well, I guess we saw you for a friend's baby. That was like six weeks ago-ish, yeah. Oh, I think that was maybe two months because it two months? Al, yeah. Al was away for about a month and a half recently. So what was she doing? She was at Interlocken directing. Oh, oh, cool. Cool, cool. Um, but how you doing, man? I'm good. I'm good.
SPEAKER_04I feel like this summer it's been very like. The weather is weird today, too.
SPEAKER_03I'm feeling a little whatever, but that's okay, folks. You know, sometimes the weather is what it is, and you just gotta go with it.
SPEAKER_04Things can't be great if things aren't bad sometimes. That's true. You know?
SPEAKER_01We only understand what being good is when we feel like shit. Sometimes. This is a great start to this episode. What is 72 hours? I have not seen this, and I'm excited to hear about it, man.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, 72 hours. I shot this last year, like around like July 4th. Yeah, it was it's like a short thing or something. No, no, it's it's uh it's a feature of on Netflix. Nice. Uh it stars Kevin Hart. Really? Uh yeah. Did you get to work with him? I did. I did. How was he? The best. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Is he fun?
SPEAKER_04Really fun. I bet. Really kind. Yeah. And it was really cool just seeing someone who's kind of a master of what they do. Yeah. Work and how organized he is, how committed he is to like finding what the joke is or what the joke could be, but also being really open to what you throw at him and like spinning it and making it even funnier. I love that. Um, yeah, I mean, editing, editing room-wise, they cut me down like a decent amount, but that's like that's what matters. And honestly, I'm just super grateful that my face is there. Yeah you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_03That's true.
SPEAKER_04Well, that's not all that matters. That's true. That's true. But also just like being there was such a great experience to like watch people who do the thing that like I want to do and just watch them do their thing. I got to like work with Zach Cherry from Severance. Oh, fantastic. And oh, he's so good on that show. So good. Also very funny. And the nicest effortless too. Yeah. Yeah, like watching him work, it was like, oh, you don't really there's like this story about John Travolta in some movie, and he's like, I'm watching him work, and Travolta's like not doing anything. And then I watch the film, and like you can see it all in his eyes, like in the close-up, and he's like just a lot of trust. Yeah. And Zach Cherry was kind of like there. He was just like doing his thing. Yeah. It's like not drawing a lot of attention to what he's doing, but he's like effortlessly hilarious. Yeah. Yeah. It was like really, like a really cool thing to see.
SPEAKER_01It is one of those weird things, it's like watching performance from afar when it's being filmed. Yeah. Sometimes feels like they're not doing anything. Right, yeah, right. And then you see the foot, it's like, oh, the performance wasn't for where I was standing. The performance was where the camera was. Right, right. There's so much trust with camera work. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Speaking of Kevin Hart, he did one of the best stand-up specials I've ever seen when I was at a Delphi university. He was doing like a college circuit. Oh, cool. And he was doing one of his new specials. And it was, to this day, like still one of the best stand-up specials I've ever seen. It was very personal too. Yeah. It felt kind of uh, I don't want to say off-brand, but it was new. And I was like, oh, I really he like learned a lot about his family life and uh just how he learned to cope with things going on in his life through humor was just really inspiring. And he was he was just his energy is as infectious as it was back then as is as it is now. Yeah, he's just got endless energy, it feels like. Yeah, yeah. And constantly working to thousands of so many commercials as well. He did Chase commercials for a while, right? Didn't he? I think so. I think they were Chase.
SPEAKER_04Probably.
SPEAKER_00If it wasn't Chase, I'll cut this out.
SPEAKER_01This episode is not brought to you by JP Morgan Chase. Take me back, man.
SPEAKER_04Where are you originally from, Brandon? Tell the good folks. My biography. It all started when I was born. Um so uh I grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana. New Orleans, of course, yes. And then when I was nine, Katrina happened. Wow. And then we moved to Maryland. Wow. And I was in Maryland until I was 18. Wow. Went to college at NYU, so I moved to New York for college, and then shook out that I got to go to grad school at NYU. And that's kind of my trajectory. Your trajectory, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So we when did you move to New York? You moved to New York uh I was 18.
SPEAKER_0418. Yeah. I was uh Do I want to age myself on the pod? Um I have to? No, I will. I I moved in 2014. Yeah. Um and so that's my freshman year. Yeah. 2014. So this is my 12th year in 2014.
SPEAKER_01I came to New York City. When did I come to New York? I graduated high school in 2009, and then I went uh graduated undergrad 2013. So we uh we came to New York sort of around the same time. Yeah. It's pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_04But you're from New York, though. You're from New York I'm from upstate New York, yes.
SPEAKER_01Um from Slingerlings. That's clut Slingerlands, yeah. I mean, that was it. Yeah? Yeah, Slingerlands. Slingerless. I thought there was an in-back. It's Slingerlands. Oh it's Slingerlands. That's how you say it. Slingerlands. But that's the just the the easier way of uh Yeah, I was like Slingerlings.
SPEAKER_02I feel like I'm doing a terrible start to this episode. I'm judging you a lot, right?
SPEAKER_01No, that's totally fine because I know it's love for you.
SPEAKER_03Um uh oh, here's a question I haven't asked you.
SPEAKER_04Okay.
SPEAKER_03When did you get bit by the bug?
SPEAKER_04Oh, okay. This is a fun story. I love it. I love it. I love hearing people's uh So there's like it's a two-fold thing where my grandmother was an actor and a dancer in New York. Very cool. And she was in the 50s revival of Showboat on Broadway as a dancer. Wow. She um studied with Martha Graham at the neighborhood playhouse. Really? And like Sanford Meisner. Oh my god. Um, but she was a dancer, so Martha Graham was like her like mentor and teacher. Wow. Joanne Woodward was her classmate. Woodard Woodward? Paul Newman's uh wife, and also like an amazing actress and like the fugitive kind and so many other great performances. So like I have like a playbill of like one of her rehearsal projects. Oh, that's so cool. It's like her name's there and like Joanne Woodward's names there. They sit my parents' plates for their wedding.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. So did you just have like all this like memorabilia and it would just did you sort of like feel like there was a romantic aspect to it of like, oh god, so a little bit as I got older, I was like, it's it keeps me really connected to my like family and like my ancestry.
SPEAKER_04But how I got bit was when I was in fifth grade, my mom was like, You should go do the play, because like your grandmother, she did theater and blah blah blah.
SPEAKER_01And I was like, I don't do plays, I play basketball. You had a very different voice back then.
SPEAKER_04That's how exactly how I sound. So, this is what NYU's voice training really does. I know I didn't always sound like this. It removes the nerdy voice from you, I guess. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. That was my audition. That's what I did just like that. I remember hearing that one. No, that's my sharing. That was my sharing. Oh my god, dude. But I had a crush on a girl in my fifth grade class, uh-huh, and I saw in her like cubby mailbox that she had like the theater form in there. Shut up. And I went, We're in, boys. Go into theater. It was the sound of music. Yeah. I played Captain Von Trapp. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Um, and I I think I'm gonna reveal something kind of sacrilegious on this episode right now, which is it. I've never seen Sound of Music. Really? I've never seen it. No, and I want to. Oh, wow. I don't know why I haven't just sat down. It's kind of long.
SPEAKER_04The movie's really long, it has like an intermission. Oh my god, it's one of those. Yeah. But highly recommend. I mean, I've heard it's amazing. Christopher Plummer. Yeah, he looks handsome as hell. Julie Andrews. Amazing. It's great. It's a great the kids. There are children. There are young people. And I my thing is like I had no idea that it was about like the rise of fascism. Yeah. Because when I was a kid and my mom would put it on like VHS or whatever, we would like turn it off after like the first half, because it's like a really long movie. Sure.
SPEAKER_01But after the first half, so you never saw the end.
SPEAKER_04So I never saw the end. So I had no idea.
SPEAKER_01Where I know the Nazis show up. But they show up.
SPEAKER_04You know, that's like a have you seen the pacifier with Vin Diesel? Vin Diesel? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01How have I seen the pacifier, but I haven't seen the sound of music?
SPEAKER_04Well, the sound of music's a big plot point in The Pacifier. Is it really? Because I haven't seen that since theaters.
SPEAKER_01I think I think I watch it at least at least twice.
SPEAKER_04Once a week. Shut up.
SPEAKER_01I thought you were gonna say like once a year. I genuinely like that movie. I just think it's great. Every year I watch The Pacifier.
SPEAKER_04But he finds like Vin Diesel's investigating the kids because one of the kids like being shady or something. And he finds like a Nazi armband in the kids' locker, and he's like, What the heck? Turns out the kids playing Rolf and the sound music. Oh my god. He's like, Well, you are 16, going on 17. That one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00He's like, This isn't family. I'm the babysitter, so technically they aren't family. You did a great job in the musical. I can't do Vin Diesel. It was beautiful. So no one does a good Vin Diesel. It's just a deep voice. I am Groot. I am Groot.
SPEAKER_04You know, Vin Diesel does all the Groot like um languages. Or like he does it in space, like, Yo soy Groot and like does the whole thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, he's probably there for like half an afternoon per movie. Here's your big bag of money. I have heard that he asks for very specific, like, what is Groot saying in this every time he says it? And I'm like, I actually respect that. You know? That like he's trying to be specific.
SPEAKER_04I love Vin Diesel.
SPEAKER_01I think he's amazing. We just started re-watching the Fast and the Furious, which is high art. I mean that get high and then watch it. Um, but um I love those movies. They're so silly and fun.
SPEAKER_04Have you seen the Riddick films?
SPEAKER_01I have. I've seen the first there's only two, or are there three? There's three. I don't think I've seen the third one.
SPEAKER_04There's Pitch Black, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_01Oh, Pitch Black I've seen, and then it's Chronicles.
SPEAKER_04Chronicles, which is like so bad it's good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's goes crazy. But Keith David is in it. So that always heightens the project. I love Keith David.
SPEAKER_04I ran into Keith David. Did you? Um like a year ago. Keith David after that. I'm setting you up right now. Maybe I'm setting you up. Baby. Oh my god. He's wearing like a big like white fur coat and like a fur hat. I love him. And he's with like some just like some dudes, like some New York dudes. Yeah. So like gold chains and like, you know, they look like they could be extras from The Godfather or something. And I walk up to him and I'm like, You're Keith David. And he goes, That's what they call me. And I was like, I just want to say, over the pandemic, like you did this thing for my friend. Who told him about it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What did he say? And I just want to say thank you. And because I'm an actor from NYU, and his wife went to grad acting. Yeah. And he said, um, he was like, he was just like, Oh, thank you for saying that. That was like so great that I was able to do that for you guys. And then he like asked my name. He's like, What's your name? And I was like, Brandon. And he's like Brandon. What's your name? Your full name. I was like, uh He asked for your full name. Yeah, he's like, so I can look out for you.
SPEAKER_00And I was like, Brandon Dial. It was really cool. And I was like, he's like, I'm on 72 hours on Netflix. Come watch me. Hey Keith, if you're watching, check me out.
SPEAKER_01I'll tag him. Uh, but very briefly, that story that you just mentioned, which is like one of the best gifts I've ever gotten. Larry Maslon, thank you. So, so sweet.
SPEAKER_04Shout out to Larry.
SPEAKER_01Uh Larry was one of our uh teachers at NYU, and we did uh he had a class called Now Then, and it was about how you create uh a now-ness to the then-ness. Yeah, that is the worst way of describing it. How do you research history dramaturgy of how you use that research to then make it feel natural and normal and contemporary for yourself? Yeah. Um that's a great explanation. Yeah, I hope so. I think that's good. I think this is something every actor should learn how to do. I agree, I agree. Um uh and for that class, well, we got thrown into the pandemic, so things shifted a little bit. So I created a What are you gonna do, you know? Yeah, I created a documentary around like the playwrights that we were studying at the time. And uh we were also watching documentaries that had Keith David as the narrator for a lot of them. Right, right. And I knew the voice instantly. So I as a joke, I did my best Keith David impression.
SPEAKER_04Keith David. He did like the uh the community line where he's like, that man knows his way around a meatball. Oh my god. He kind of talks like this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like very smooth and soft palette, round. I can't believe this is the line that's coming to my mind, but it is a community line. That man knows how to marry his cousin. That was it. That was it. That was the episode with the meatball. That's one of the best episodes.
SPEAKER_04That's one of the best episodes of comedic TV.
SPEAKER_01Weird episode, but very funny. And Keith David's commentary on white people in it at weddings is so funny. Actually, phenomenal. Um, so so funny. But anyway, uh, I did a parody of Keith David's voice for this documentary. And then at the end of the year, Larry was like, uh I have a little bit of a surprise, and he got Keith David, the Keith David, to do a few lines from my documentary. And uh, I was blown away. Because I I forgot that he was married to an alum. Yeah. That was a wild, wild gift.
SPEAKER_04That was a wild time. That that zoom semester. So Oh God. I what were you gonna say? I was like, do I talk to the people at home? You can say whatever, dude.
SPEAKER_01Oh, what'd you do to your leg? I'm just noticing.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, I like have a tiny little ankle sprain. Uh it's got it's it was like a month ago. Uh God.
SPEAKER_01That's old news. Fuck.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's it's a lot better. He was just a little sore today, so I just put the brace on.
SPEAKER_05You just do it.
SPEAKER_04But yeah, we like had like full conservatory grad school for like two months in front of a computer. Yeah. Where our schedule was still like, you know, nine to ten o'clock at night. I was so depressed. 9 a.m. to 10 o'clock.
SPEAKER_019 to 10. It was one whole hour every day. No, dude, that's that's that's why we're so good at it. Rest. Yeah. That's why we're so good at it. I've gotten really good at rest. If I learned anything from the pandemic, it's rest. Uh, but that was a wild experience. Wild time. I feel like I've talked about it so much on the podcast, so we don't have to go there. Oh, yeah, we don't have to go there. We don't have to go there. We don't have to go there. Um, how was your time coming out of NYU? You got some you got some pretty great gigs coming out of school.
SPEAKER_04I did, I did. I feel really fortunate that I've been um, you know, doing stuff. Yeah. You know, it's weird because you go from being so scheduled at the wazoo to like being out and not doing like what you thought you might have been doing immediately. Totally. But yeah, I was working at a restaurant and um I remember sitting like on my bed being like, oh my gosh, I'm I'm right back to where I started.
SPEAKER_01Dude, I um I had a similar experience at my first year out when I went back to dog walking. There is something about going back to jobs that you did before, the you're like a large chunk of time where you get to focus on the thing that you want to be doing. Right. That just yeah, it really does feel like you're rewinding. And I I had to I had to step away from it.
SPEAKER_04It was just like, you know, you're you're doing a really intense thing for three years. You're like, oh, okay, now I'm back to like what I was doing before, and then you know, everyone knew the stag strike was coming up, and so like Oh my god, that was yeah. But I was sitting on like my bed in my apartment after working at Brun Shift, and then I got a call that I was going to do the like the Disney cruise line workshop for Moana. Moana, I remember you. That was my first years ago. I remember that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. How was that? Was that fun? It was for the cruise lines, it was for the developing it for cruise lines.
SPEAKER_04That's where the show went. I see. Yeah, it was like the love of Moana.
SPEAKER_01It's one of those Moana's great. It's one of my favorites.
SPEAKER_04It's one of my top five. Yeah, and the show I saw like a clip of it because I directed or I co-directed a Moana Jr. for like my teaching gig, and I was like, we watched the show on YouTube because they're all on YouTube, and I was like, Oh, that's this, that's this, that's this person. Um my god. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So you're showing off to the kids, being like, Yeah, I can do the Maui rap. What can I say? You're welcome.
SPEAKER_01You went on to do you got to work at the public. I did, I did in a pretty fantastic production of one, I think, one of the greatest American classics. That was amazing.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and I met some really awesome people on that. I just saw my buddy Skyler, who was the Carl Linder understudy um that we became super close, went to his bachelor party and was just at his wedding.
SPEAKER_01Um you were so good in it, dude. I just have to say, it was a beautiful performance. It was a great show. Um you were very memorable. And I was just impressed. Thank you. Because being an understudy is really tough. Well, but I was a replacement to replace.
SPEAKER_04So it was like I So you took on the the end of the show, right? I think I had a the last like couple weeks of the run. So I think I had like two or three rehearsals and then I was like live.
SPEAKER_01What is that like? Where there is that kind of pressure. It's a bit like, had you worked for the public before?
SPEAKER_04No, it's my first time.
SPEAKER_01So there's like pressure, I would assume, from getting that and knowing that like you're gonna have to take over the part and the very short rehearsal period that came. Was that did you feel like NYU had set you up for success there? Because I mean, you were great, so I would say thank you.
SPEAKER_04That really does, that really does mean a lot. John John is someone who um in school I was always extremely inspired by because you're gonna listen to me compliment you. Oh, it's fine. That's part of what this podcast is for. Well, just like you're so good at finding who the person is. Oh, thanks, man. I've told you this before, but like you can say it again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like you're so on recording specific about finding the container of who the character is and like being alive inside of that. Thanks, man. Like the transformational work this this man can do. Thanks, buddy, and it's still like completely a hundred percent believable is just like it's it's unreal. Thanks, buddy. And I kind of almost like trying. Work like that on Raisin. Oh, great. Um, because I was playing George Murchison, and I was like, Oh, this is like the guy, yeah. So let me just go be the guy, yeah. And then luckily, when you're replacing the blocking's done, they've like discovered the moment, so I'm kind of slotting in, yeah, and then just finding what actions I'm playing, yeah, in the container of the character. And although my little brother saw it, and I did this one scene where um it's like George is pressuring um Benitha after their date. Yeah, yeah. And my brother was like, You weren't mean enough. And I was like, mean enough. Like, oh no, Jesus. And I was like, Oh, I gotta change my action here. Um, and I was going, like, and I remember uh changing it, but when mama said, Get the heck out of my house, yeah, the audience like roared and applause in a way they hadn't before.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so you're like, Oh, so I was like, I am serving the story earlier because I'm playing that that moment can land attention.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, now I'm like really serving the story.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, which I thought was like that's amazing that you were able to recognize that too, because it's like, oh yeah, some of those small things will change events, how the audience sees the event, certain events later in the world.
SPEAKER_04And like setting up your other actor, yeah, exactly. So like really, and that one is perfect, like it's one of the things that it's such a short little scene, but it's like it can be really, really like intense in a way. Absolutely. Going on, I felt really nervous because we were performing in front of like four people in their third year, and then it's like wait, in your four oh I'm in our third year. Okay, and that was like, oh, there's a like 300 people.
SPEAKER_01I want to discuss that because I remember when I did my first bigger show out of school.
SPEAKER_04So the one in Maine?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh no, in um uh when I was in Hartford doing Winter's Tale. Cool, and it was I loved that show, it was really, really fun. Um, and yeah, I had that moment where I was backstage and it hit me for the first time in a while. I was like, oh whoa, there's a lot more people out there than I've been used to. Yeah, so it took my nervous system a moment to sort of like ground myself again. And I was like, whoa, yeah, we're back in person. There's people out there again. And like that pressure, like, you know, or uh duress as duress and still say two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. But it it that is something that you gotta teach yourself. It's like, what is the type of duress that you're gonna be under? Um, because during school it was a different kind of duress. Yeah. Um, and we were working with other types of duress too, where we were kind of fighting for, you know, pushing some of the restrictions so that we could it felt fair. Yeah. Um especially when we saw some of the things that like the sports students were allowed to do versus what we were allowed to do, just felt very hypocritical. Yeah. Um but uh but all that to say it duress is uh duress is during the duress is duress.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. But it's like once but I wonder if you felt this at uh at Hartford Stage where once like you were able to like calm down, you're like, oh wait, this is the same thing that I was doing in school.
SPEAKER_01I think it's always the first performance, too, that I think is always the most difficult. I always think opening night is the hardest night. Once once you've done it in front of an audience of a certain size, I don't think it really changes that night to night. Weirdly for me, it's like once there's been a pretty full house, I feel less anxious the next day because I'm like, eh, what's a few extra people? Right. You know, it's like I'm not gonna notice the difference. Um, but uh yeah, I've always found the first day is always the hardest, and then past that it's just fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I love it when a play when you're like doing a run of something for a while and like you all know each other so well and you've just been running the play a bunch where the play just kind of starts to hum.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And you're just like, oh. And not in a way that feels like monotonous, but just like, oh, we're all we're just playing.
SPEAKER_04Well, I can actually like listen and talk. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because it's like you know what a novel idea in acting to listen and talk. Yeah, yeah, like new moments happen and then speak.
SPEAKER_04Um, like like truly.
SPEAKER_01It's just yeah.
SPEAKER_04I love a play.
SPEAKER_01Me too. I love a play. Oh, I love it.
SPEAKER_04I talked about you with that Hartford, because I went in for a production they were casting like about a year ago. And it was the same direction. Was it Elaine? Oh, oh, was it Elaine? I love Elaine. And Lisa and Lisa are so good. Like some of my favorite people. They're the kindest. Yeah, they're kindest.
SPEAKER_01They've been so consistent over their careers too. Like the stuff they have cast is like always good.
SPEAKER_04And it's really cool. Love actors. Yeah. They love actors. Yeah. Um, like I just did a play that they cast in the spring. Oh, yeah. It was called Midwest Porn. Really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was that about?
SPEAKER_04Porn in the Midwest? Yeah, pretty much. We all Danielle, our games teacher, was in it. Really? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god. Shout out Danielle, also uh on the pod. Wait, she has? Yeah, she's in the first season. First season. Yes. Danielle was she is so fun to talk to. I love her.
SPEAKER_04I love you. Oh my god. She's amazing. Yeah. And like getting to like work with her as a collaborator. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that must have been so fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. It was just great. That was a really fun experience doing that play. Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Wait, was Midwest Point?
SPEAKER_04Midwest point. Where was that? It was with Tent Theater. Oh, nice. Which is um Tim Petter's pitching a tent theater?
SPEAKER_01No. For Midwest Point.
SPEAKER_04Oh, we like to have fun. We like to have fun here. We really do. We have a great time. Gosh. Yep. When we did it at the end.
SPEAKER_00I am mugging to the camera so much. Is that I should I start with the code?
SPEAKER_01I'm probably talking about this one where you're looking versus like the one that's Michael's.
SPEAKER_04This is the most nervous I've ever been in my life. No.
SPEAKER_00We were just talking about performing at the public. I'm like, there's no fucking way. It's this right here. John Mattalone's couch.
SPEAKER_04I'm like, I just don't know if I can do this. Nah, I can't do it anymore.
SPEAKER_01I couldn't act on an act, man. Not even acting.
SPEAKER_04Oh man. I'm dead. Oh god. Um Midwest porn. Midwest porn. We don't have to talk about it if you want to. It was good. It was a good play. It was really fun. I like played like a fourth grader. You played a fourth grader? Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01So it's like adults playing younger people. Adults playing kids. No, they it was natural. No, actually, everyone else was not. I'm a six foot six.
SPEAKER_04I'm a transformational actor. Yeah. I went to NBA. And why you got acting? Uh six three. Six. Okay, I gave you three extra inches. Six six.
SPEAKER_01I would be in the NBA. I know. I was like, Brandon should play for the NBA. I've always said that. Uh so what was it about?
SPEAKER_04So it was about like uh Catholicism and pornography. Love it.
SPEAKER_01Wait, this is right up my alley. This sounds like my use.
SPEAKER_04You would have loved this play. I think it's a good idea. It was really it was Quincy Long who wrote it. Because Tense Mission Statement is like finding playwrights who are not in the twilight, but are, you know, they've they're experienced playwrights who um still want to produce work. Yeah. And playwriting can sometimes be like, oh, who's this fresh hot new voice? Yeah. And like all this all like the big theaters are gonna program those writers, but like, what about the writers that were super big like 20 years ago? Yeah. Um and Quincy was he was at every rehearsal. He's an absurdist. Oh, awesome. Um, like he'll describe himself as an absurdist. So like there's a scene where so it's like the school is being um infested by turtles, and the turtles are like a metaphor for like sexuality. Sure. And uh this one kid it's really hard to explain, actually, but it's an absurd piece. Yeah, but it was really fun because it was an absurd piece. Yeah, and how it was written was like you gotta just like play the honesty of like being a fourth grader, yeah, and like let the play take care of itself. Sure. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I there is something so interesting about kids in situations that are just way more adult than they're used to. Like them trying to figure out why people behave certain ways. I've I think is always just a really easy but also effective way of like being able to build a world. Right. Well, because kids love rules. Yeah, they love rules. Kids love rules. Yeah, yeah. And they want to understand how it works. They want to know how it works. And then they grow up and realize that none of the adults actually no one knows what the fuck is happening at all.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I still feel like 12 years old. Oh, me too.
SPEAKER_01There are there are certain times when I when I'm like, yeah, why am I so ignorant about this topic or dumb like in regards to certain things where I'm just like, I've heard of this thing, but I don't I don't know a lot about it.
SPEAKER_04That's not dumb at all. I think admitting that you don't know something is extremely wise. I'll take it. Because then you can like learn about it. No, I think that's true.
SPEAKER_01I think that is totally true. It's just it's interesting to me that the people who uh will profess how smart they are are are the people who are the least curious. Well, it's uh it's Faye Simpson. It's the imploded.
SPEAKER_00Oh, oh, I thought you were going to say it's Faye Simpson. No, no, no. I think Faye is a variant. No, no, but it's the body work. It's the uh nothing can get in. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Nothing can get in. Blocked chakra.
SPEAKER_01But blocked chakra. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true though. Yeah. How how how much um I'm doing a terrible job of keeping the momentum going in this episode.
SPEAKER_04It's okay. It's raining outside.
SPEAKER_01You know, you know what they say? Not that I'm feeling sleepy. You feeling sleepy, my people? No, but like you feel sleepy next to the people you love. I'm just feeling very relaxed and loose, goosey, and I don't really care. Yeah. In a good way. No, no, it's good because like we as I as I literally lay my head down. Folks at home.
SPEAKER_04John and I, of course, are cohort members. And we did a lot of shows together too. I don't mind. We did like we did a lot of stuff together. We did. We got we. Like you and me. You and I did a lot of shows together. Yeah, we did have a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01We did upset and upset. Um uh Romeo and Julia. Rome and Julia did that. We all did that.
SPEAKER_04Um Charles, of course, because we all did that.
SPEAKER_01Charles. Um You weren't in Martisol, though.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. You were in Martysol.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. Wait, who were you in Martisol?
SPEAKER_04I was were you and it was the brother that had like the Irish like Brooklyn accent.
SPEAKER_01Oh, but we were in no scenes together.
SPEAKER_04No, no, no. We were still in the same room.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know, but I'm like, when I'm remembering, I'm I'm like seeing people on stage. You were so good in that play. And I was me? You were so good in that play. I was barely in it.
SPEAKER_04But you were so good in that play.
SPEAKER_01I was at the top, I love Body Soul. It's one of my favorite. Oh, the ice cream guy was very fun. That was the that was my favorite character because it was the least amount of costume I had to wear. Because you I was the guy who got lit on fire. Spoilers, you ran in the fame, Body Soul. But yeah at the top of Act Two, laying out there underneath all of that clothes, I was so sweaty. I would get panic attacks sometimes, actually. Well, not panic attacks, but I when when I would go to do the fire thing when I had to go it through that chimney, that that was a great set.
SPEAKER_04That was a great set.
SPEAKER_01There was like a chimney coming out of the wall, um, and I had to climb through it at one point, and Jillian Boltz, who was playing a neo-Nazi in the nuts in there.
SPEAKER_04Did she have like a bald wig or something? No.
SPEAKER_01Did she wear she did no? She put on a no, she had a red wig.
SPEAKER_04She had a red wig.
SPEAKER_01Because I think the character has red hair specifically mentioned.
SPEAKER_03Uh wait, does she wear a bald cap at one point?
SPEAKER_04Or was it just a hoodie, maybe?
SPEAKER_03Or a hoodie, or I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Because the character is supposed to have a fire play. I remember that. Um and every time I do that, I have to go fucking nuts in there because I'm lit on fire, and then I die. Yeah. And then I sit in the chimney for like another five minutes until a certain transition change. Um, and like every other night, I would just be like, like, I would get very anxious. Because I was just like, get me out of this fucking chimney. I was sweating so much and just out of breath. Um, great production. Like, people like that one a lot.
SPEAKER_04That was maybe We're just going down memory line.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's what we're gonna do here. Sorry, guys. Uh that but that's a great play. If you haven't read it, fantastic. Really great. Also, like a good one to probably do now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. Um it's actually been pretty insp inspiring for a play that I've been writing recently. Are you writing right now? Yeah, I've been writing a lot over the past couple years. Uh like um I've done a couple of short plays, and there's one that I'm I'm looking to get done by the end of this year. Is it a play with music or uh one of them it well, one of them is uh also an iambic pantameter, so that one's taking You're writing a verse play? I am a five-act verse play. And I really like it. Yeah, yeah. But it's just it takes a long time. I don't know how Shakespeare and Marlowe did it. Yeah, it's the it's it's hard to write like that for long periods of time, but they would churn them out. But they also didn't have distractions back in the day, you know. They didn't have tic-tac. 16th, 17th century. They didn't have the distractions. It's true though. They just had not have to be a good thing. We have today. So but yeah, that's one I'm working on. Did you say MySpace? I heard that they're cheered in the admitted back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard it's coming back. Tom's gonna be all our friends again. Oh, yeah. Our first friend, Tom. He was the first friend when you think about it.
SPEAKER_04Really?
SPEAKER_01I mean, when you think about it.
SPEAKER_04I wasn't on MySpace. Oh, I wasn't it's a little before me.
SPEAKER_01Uh before my team. You're a little younger than me.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's a little bit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I I won't out your age. I'm almost 35 in the middle. Are you gonna date me? 35 in like two weeks. You're 35 in two weeks? Yeah. Whoa. I was thinking about it a lot today at the gym, and I was like, I still feel like I'm in my mid-20s, though.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_01In a good way. No, yeah, yeah. I do feel tired, but also like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_04You seemed the same.
SPEAKER_01I seem to be. Since I've known you. You look the same.
SPEAKER_04I met you in your young face, a baby face.
SPEAKER_01I I was 27 to 30.
SPEAKER_04Okay, I was 20.
SPEAKER_01Right, twenty or I guess twenty-eight to thirty, technically. Twenty eight to twenty nine.
SPEAKER_04Three to twenty-six. Twenty-three to twenty-six. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01For you, buddy.
SPEAKER_04I was a baby. You were.
SPEAKER_01I I yeah. It was, you know. But not not real, not a baby baby. No. You know, we had some people who came right from undergrad. Yeah. Well, no, that's what you did. I took a no you took a year.
SPEAKER_04I took a year, yeah, yeah. Xavier came.
SPEAKER_01Ten years, technically, right?
SPEAKER_04Just one. Just one. Just one. Uh Xavier came from the year. I'm younger, so I always think Gillian and Sisha are my age, but they both did gap years or something. And so they they were right at it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01So shout out Gillian Bolt and Sisha Talwar. The homies.
SPEAKER_04The homies. Since we're like going on this trip down memory lane. I don't care. When you were work when you work, when you're working on when you're when you're when you're sorry, I can't speak. Oh, it's like when you're like working on sides or like a production, what are the what are your tools that you go to first? Like that you got from school? Like what were the one what are the things you really you really pull from when you're working on stuff?
SPEAKER_01Or is it like different for the situation? I think it's different for the situ uh each situation is I mean like that's the easiest answer. But I would say the things that I go to most, uh initiating impulse stuff. Yeah. That's always like I think that's just the heart of it. It's like, well, what's the thing that's gonna give me the springboard? Like, what's the thought here? What is the other person saying or doing that initiates me? That's always like the number one for me.
SPEAKER_04Or we are both initiated. Arm Trick.
SPEAKER_00Probably wondering why God would shoot him before throwing him out of the plane.
SPEAKER_01That is my favorite line. It's a good line because it shows how smart he is. Yeah. But we all couldn't understand it the first time we watched it in Peter's, unfortunately. Uh, I actually think his performance is great. He's great, he's great in everything. Uh initiating impulse. I do that stuff. Uh I just want to get off book as soon as possible because I tend to just listen to my lines a lot on tape, over and over and over. And through that process, I find my mind will, when it's like, if I'll do it while I'm just going about my days, I I actually watch, I actually play video games a lot while I while I listen to my lines. Oh just doing something else while listening to the lines, sort of like splitting my ability between two things that are not learning. Yeah, that are not associated with each other. Um weirdly gives me more facility when I get on my feet because then I can associate anything with it. If that makes any sense. No, no, no. I know that probably doesn't work for most people. It's like the lines become I just sort of like get into this headspace where I can listen to the lines and break them down while I'm doing other things. And then ultimately when I get on my feet and know the lines, uh because I've been so adept at doing something else while listening to the lines, saying them feels the same. So like being able to attribute new actions to the lines is has become easier for me.
SPEAKER_04Versus marrying the memorization to to blocking.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Which I think a lot of like actors do when they first start learning uh the craft. And and and I know a lot of actors who also still do that. Yeah, yeah. That's that's a perfectly viable way. I just like the freedom to be able to make a different decision. It just made making new actions easier for me. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's kind of like the um like the practical aesthetics Meisner thing, where it's like you learn the lines by rote and kind of contentless. Yeah. So you can just be available. Yeah. And like play your action.
SPEAKER_01This is Lipton Classics. This is where we go through the classic ten questions that the late great James Lipton asked at the end of his Inside the Actors Studio. Uh, and these questions were first devised by the French journalist Bernard Pivot. And those questions are as follows. Brandon, are you ready? Uh let's do it. Alright, question one. Okay. What is your favorite word?
SPEAKER_04Okay. My favorite word is mom. Oh, that's really sweet. Wow, that really hit me. I think that's my favorite word.
SPEAKER_01That was quite sweet. That's a beautiful answer. What is your least favorite word? John. No. No, I've got you. I love you.
SPEAKER_04John is bad. My least favorite word is favorite word. Yeah, I'm not really a can it be like a phrase? Sure, why not? I really don't like. Yeah. I can't.
SPEAKER_01Can't.
SPEAKER_04Like can't. Like I can't. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I feel that. Yeah. The sort of uh it's just so defeatist. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I feel that. I feel that. Can't. That's a good one. What turns you on? Excuse me. I did that one really quick too. I don't know why I jumped on it so fast.
SPEAKER_04Uh oh, like.
SPEAKER_01And it doesn't have to be sexual.
SPEAKER_04No, and I figured I figure it is such. I love a crowded, full movie theater with like a like a movie that is like a bunch of like sensations. Like I saw End of Oak Street. Oh, is it fun? Is it good? I loved it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's I've been meaning to see it. It looked fun.
SPEAKER_04It's really fun. Yeah, yeah. They're not. I don't know if I want to speak ill on the marketing team, but I feel like it could be marketed better.
SPEAKER_01Oh, does it not like do you feel like the premise doesn't really solidify itself in the commercial?
SPEAKER_04The premise does, but a lot of people are saying that it looks not good. And this is like the guy that directed It Follows. And Under the Silver Lake, it's one of my favorite filmmakers. Yeah, he's an incredible filmmaker. And this is like just it's doing the Amblin thing where it's like But it's like doing it in a fresh, new way. Yeah. I really like it. Highly recommend.
SPEAKER_01This is the thing though. I I'm glad you brought this up because I do think there has been a little bit of a loss of the art of previews in in preview editing. There's a lot of formulaic preview stuff, and I feel like that one fell maybe into the trap of just like, well, we have dinosaurs and people running in fear. Right. And that's enough of a conflict for people to look at and understand. Right. And it's like, yeah, but I like you can give us a little more. Yeah, but also why not allow that be to be a little bit more of a surprise? Like, I feel like the whole thing is just like an onslaught of dinosaurs. And I'm like, but clearly, this is like a community that's been taken out of toilet. Right, it's a twilight zone. I'm like, that's that's the interesting thing. Like the dinosaurs are just another option. It's like a man versus nature. Yeah, that's not like the main thing. Like, how did this happen? Why are we here? How did this happen? How do we get home? Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I just feel like there's so much formulaic stuff in yeah in previews now. And it's uh I I used to be such an art form. Like it's now they show you the either the whole film or they just show you chaos.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And that's how I feel. That's uh John feels. What turns you off? Oh I just went through one of mine.
SPEAKER_04What does turn me off? Um lately I've been like picking up. Heart when people are not kind. Sure. You know, like I know that sounds like really basic, but it's really easy not to be cruel and rude and mean to people. And that doesn't mean like being a people pleaser. Um like you gotta like be like, oh well, here's here's some cotton candy and cupcakes and like every interaction, but like it's really easy to find collaborative ground with people. You gotta choose it. You can choose it, and some people just don't. Where I grew up, Howard County, Maryland has like a phrase, it's like our county motto called choose civility.
SPEAKER_01I love that. Yeah, it's a great town motto.
SPEAKER_04And a lot of people just don't choose civility.
SPEAKER_01I man, I feel that though. Yeah. I've also been sort of going through a similar thing recently where and it's more it's something I sort of noticed in myself about personal judgment and just being like, why am I being so mean to myself or or judging someone else's behavior within myself? And I'm just like, why why am I choosing to judge this so hard? Like I could choose to look at this with more kindness or just choose not to be so harsh.
SPEAKER_04Just look at this with understanding. Yeah. I was I was having a really similar thought. Yeah. Where it's just like, oh, maybe when judgmental thoughts come in my head, I'm like actually being judgmental of myself. So let me investigate why I'm judging myself, and I've so I can just let other people be. You know?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, I I I think I think too with the political climate we're in, it's just I think it's a behavioral thing. Like once it's sort of with how vicious this president can be with his words and things, that has an effect. Yeah. And it trickles down in a way that's that we feel. And I think it's it's why being a leader on that sort of level is it is more, in my opinion, a PR position than it is anything else. Like it's your job is to be the person who can bring people together. Yeah. And I just feel like we don't have a lot of leadership like that right now. And and and it's it's showing now, and we're starting to feel it. Yeah. And I think that's why we're feeling it now, because we're halfway through this fucking thing. This administration, and it's like starting to really take a toll.
SPEAKER_04A Dr. King quote for you. Please. The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
SPEAKER_01And I'll leave it at that. It's it is true, it is very true. Alan and I actually just uh visited the uh Dr. King memorial in in the Capitol. Oh, in DC? It's beautiful, it's gorgeous, it's fantastic. We were there when a bunch of kids were there on a school trip, though, and they were so obnoxious. I'm like, this man's a hero. Let's be a little more respectful. Yeah, yeah. Um anyway, what is your favorite curse word? Oh.
SPEAKER_04Oh, oh, I love it when my my dad's from Alabama. Yeah. And he goes, She it.
SPEAKER_01That like regional shit. Yeah, like that eye to eat. Yeah. Like a real diphthong there. Yeah. She it. Yeah. Yeah, there is something good about a southern shit. Sorry, dad. Sorry, dad. It's good though. I just great answer. Uh, what sound or noise do you love?
SPEAKER_04Oh, ooh, ooh. I love I don't know what I love. Um, I love when like 90s acoustic music is like playing. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Or like at a coffee shop when you've got like some indie vibes going, you hear like the click-clack of uh typing and like the coffee's like bubbling and a little like ambiance.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Sorry guys. Sorry for those of them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that the ASMR uh community that listens to my podcast is gonna be very happy. Uh, you know what? I actually I recently started uh replaying uh is uh Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
SPEAKER_04Cool.
SPEAKER_01And I've been having fun the soundtrack on that game, it brings me right back to high school. So that recently has been igniting a lot of like memories. Like songs I haven't heard in ages, and I remember all the words too. It's so weird.
SPEAKER_04That one, and what was the snowboarding one?
SPEAKER_01That one also oh yeah, there was a good snowboarding one. Um SS something, SSX maybe. Oh, so yeah, or yeah, uh Extreme Xports? No, well, I know extreme sports.
SPEAKER_04But it looked like also had like a bop and soundtrack. Yeah, oh yeah. That was like after school when they would have, or like if you're at like a community center playing like YouTube or 64 classic. What sound or noise do you hate? I really hate like um this is it's so funny. This is like the one that's the clearest to me out of all these crap. Oh, yeah, of course.
SPEAKER_00People tend to know what sounds they don't like.
SPEAKER_04You know, like on like a polyester binder or like a maybe like um and it makes that scratchy noise. Uh-huh. Like a zzz. Really?
SPEAKER_01You don't like that noise? I hate that noise. Oh, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_04I hate it.
SPEAKER_01I think as a kid, I kind of like that noise. Oh, I hate it. It kind of has a zipper noise, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_04It does, but it's like higher pitched. Yeah. It like hurts me. It gives me physical pain.
SPEAKER_00If I ever need uh to stop you. When I go on my rampage. When you go on some rampage or whatever, that is. When I get blasted by gamma rays, become the whole. Yeah, I know what I was gonna say. I was like, what's your what's Brandon's kryptonite? It's uh that sound off of binders.
SPEAKER_01Uh, but I do know what you're talking about. High school, I had some of those binders, and I used to make that noise a lot. I don't know why. I would have hated you back. Yeah, we would have been mortal enemies. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
SPEAKER_04Hmm. Um artistically, I think it'd be really fun to be like a studio executive. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know, like someone who's in charge of choosing what projects are made.
SPEAKER_04I yeah. I was a producing minor in college. Really?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I didn't even know you could get a minor in produce. I guess you can get a major in anything, I guess. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I went to these days. It's art school.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they got stuff like that. Fair enough. You double-tished. I'm a double violet, baby.
SPEAKER_01Um fighting violets. I cannot believe that it's our university. It's a flower. It's kind of sweet, though, in a way. Yeah, it's unique for sure. It's it's it's us. It's who we are. That's a good one. That is a good one. I think we need no offense out there. I think we need some more producers who have some more risk-taking. Right.
SPEAKER_04Uh, you know, you give notes on projects, like you watch footage. I used to do coverage reports too. Really? For a production company, and that was really fun.
SPEAKER_01What it what what does that entail?
SPEAKER_04So you get sent a script and you read the script and you like give it a recommended pass. Wow.
SPEAKER_01That's the power right there, I feel.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you're like the you're the first gatekeeper.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. It's like even before, well, I guess maybe the the executive would choose what does or does not seem right, right. But um, but that's cool. When did you do that?
SPEAKER_04College?
SPEAKER_01Um It's a sweet gig.
SPEAKER_04It was cool. I don't I don't know if I signed a thing where I can see the company. Oh, that's all right. Uh you don't have to. I just think that's a that's a sweet gig. I'm a secretive man. Um, I did like my senior year of college. Nice. Yeah. I have a buddy that does it for like a big studio, or he used to for a long time. Uh-huh. And I was like, that was cool. He was like, Oh, I read the script by like Jose Rivera. And I was like, what? Oh my god. Speaking of moding. Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um what profession would you not like to do?
SPEAKER_04I don't think I would want to do finance. Finance, yeah. Yeah, the hours seem not fun. Also, just like what does that mean? Like, what is my sister works in finance.
SPEAKER_01What is finance? Just like finance. It's it's just anything dealing with money. It's money. Just money.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, well, there's like a lot of components, I think. I'll ask my sister over that. You're like, what is finance? I was like, what do you do? How does finance work?
SPEAKER_01We'll have conversations, and she's like said the artist to the person with money.
SPEAKER_04She's always like, I did this, this, this, this, this. Well, the thing she's allowed to say, because a lot of it is like hush hush. I'm sure. Um, but like does she deal with like like investment trading and stuff like that? She's in investment banking. There you go. He's like her like the catch all for what she does.
SPEAKER_01No insider trading.
SPEAKER_04She's good. Yeah. Yeah. No, like no, they they they can like they have to disclose all their stuff. It's really like it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Because it can become a real uh real issue. Yeah. We're seeing it in the White House. Uh I get political. If heaven exists. What would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearlie Gates? You did it. Welcome.
SPEAKER_04Uh I don't know. Uh probably actually, like, actually, yeah, like a you did it. Like we're we're everyone's really proud of you. Yeah. You know?
SPEAKER_01I love it.
SPEAKER_04Like, that'd be nice. Everyone's really proud of you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's sweet. Everyone in heaven? Every single That's a lot of people.
SPEAKER_04It's a lot of people. It's a lot of people. And they were like, hey, we were rooting for you. And pets. Some dogs.
SPEAKER_01And creatures of all the Christian creatures. If this is a Christian god, I don't know. Um it does say pearly gates, though. That's pretty insinuative. Yeah, that's pretty insinuating. Insinuative? It's insinuative. Shakespeare made up words. I know. I'll be right back. And you write in I am a pentamin. Yeah, I'm gonna create insinuating. No, insinuating is a word.
SPEAKER_04What did I just say? I don't know. I've had like three concussions. I've had a concussion too. They're not fun.
SPEAKER_01No, they're not. No, no, no. But we I didn't realize we had had these. Yeah. We forgot. That's literally like sometimes we're like, why don't I remember?
SPEAKER_04Because I've been hit in the head a couple times. There we go. There we go.
SPEAKER_01I uh I don't know if I've told this story, but I got my concussion very quickly. Uh this goes to show how much of a cartoon character I am sometimes. I tried doing the skateboard stuff. This all's coming together, actually. This is perfect. Disney means skateboarding meets just my own semblance of insanity. Um, which is I try to do the trick that Max Goof does in the second goofy movie when he is an extremely goofy movie. An extremely goofy movie when he is like trying out for the X games, and he does a handstand on his skateboard the long way on top of a half pipe. It's impossible.
SPEAKER_04Were you good at skateboarding?
SPEAKER_01No, I was terrible. I tried my dad built a half pipe for me though. And when I say built a half pipe, he just built he built two ramps. They were not curved, they were just ramps. And I, for the longest time, tried to teach myself how to do a handstand. I can do a handstand now as a result of this. Um, I just don't remember how I taught myself. I one day my dad uh and I were leaving the house, and he God, I can't I can only imagine what was going through his head when he heard this. But we had a barn, which was our garage, and I thought right before we were leaving for this little trip that it would be a good idea for me to try and do the extremely goofy movie trick. We're about to go on a trip. And oh, I went on a trip because all I remember is the ground coming up to meet my face. That is all I remember. And my dad said he heard the most bone-crushing crack he's ever heard, and then just my skateboard rolling out from the other side of the barn. And he ran over and found me just like unconscious on the ground. So you had a bad concussion. I woke up in the hospital. I thought I had been like uh abducted because when I woke up, I remember it so weirdly kind of vividly, in quotes, in that I just remember a blur of a man in a white outfit, like a doctor, and me on just like a slab. You're in the morgue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I I started moving, and I remember him just saying, Don't move, it's okay, you're in the hospital, and that's it. That's all I remember. How old were you? I was pretty young. I was like 13 or something, 14. Yeah. Young enough for it to be endearingly stupid.
SPEAKER_02Or not.
SPEAKER_04I love how you're like four. I'm 14 years old. I'm gonna do a trick from the extremely goofy movie.
SPEAKER_01Maybe I was younger, maybe I was 12. I don't know. It was a ra I don't know.
SPEAKER_04Maybe I'm just trying to make myself I still love Disney. I just love that. I love that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's wild. Wait, how'd you get three concussions? What have you done?
SPEAKER_04Well, mine have all been pretty mild, you know. You done? Yeah, what my first one was in Rosencrantz and Gildenstern, where like we were doing the couch dive. Oh my god. I got like there was a move, and then someone's foot Oh, someone was passing by while you were doing that. And then it like maybe missed time, like this jump through the the couch barrels that we were using, and then I hit my head because they weren't like actually cushioned, it was just wood. It just looked like they were cushioned, and my head snapped back, and then it like sprung forward, and it was like wait, this was during a performance? This is during it. This is during show. Did you did were you not you didn't get knocked out though, did you? No, no, no, no. It was mild, it was super mild. Oh, but still stars.
SPEAKER_01It fucking hurts. It hurt yeah, like I had like the whole photo. Did you have to keep performing or were you done? Was it your final?
SPEAKER_04I did like three more shows.
SPEAKER_01Uh oh, but but was that was uh was that the final?
SPEAKER_04Pretty much done, you know. It's like the end of the play. I had like, you know, I was playing Hamlet and Rose and Grants are good on certain things. Yeah, so I was like, Oh, but it's pretty easy, like it's not a crazy track.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, yeah. But there was that great scene where you were dragging uh Donathan and I was so good, right? It was Polonius at that point, right? He was polonious and you had to drag his body across the stage, and it's it was one of the funniest gags. It went on for so long, it was so funny.
SPEAKER_04And it was just like dirt, it was duration comedy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because it's like it's like you just keep finding the new way of moving the body.
SPEAKER_04It was just sailing. That's what I think what made it funny was it was like it was literally I would drag him back in like steps of three, be like one, two, three. One, two, three.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was just like it's just sort of like the rhythm of it, and it just took so long. And it's like you would think a character that character would maybe have more urgency in moving a body like that. And it was so antithetical to what you would expect. Right, right. It was so funny.
SPEAKER_04And then Donathan, like, when I put him the door, he would like open his arms so like he would get stuck. Oh, it would just like kept going. Oh, that was a great bit. Oh, that was funny. That was a great we're a funny class. We are all classes are funny in a one view, but like.
SPEAKER_01But we had a good, we we we did some bits. We did some bits. Our class had a lot of bits. We were really unhinged. Yeah. We were unhinged. In a good way. In a great way. In a great way. Uh Brandon. Sir. This is the end of the show. What? Yeah. Okay. Anything coming up that you can talk about? I I don't think I don't know if you can or can't.
SPEAKER_04I we'll see. Well, I mean, I feel like by the time this is released, I'll be able to say something.
SPEAKER_02You can talk vaguely that you've booked something.
SPEAKER_04I am understudying a show in the city. Um it will be performing in Midtown. Uh I think that's fair. I think that's good. I just don't know. I think maybe when this comes out, it'll be it'll be able to.
SPEAKER_01I mean, this will come out pretty soon. Oh, not this Monday, but the next. Oh. Because I'm I'm wrapping up this season. Okay. I'm prepping for the next one. Oh, cool. Big ideas for next season.
SPEAKER_04Oh, what do you do the next season? Next year? Is that a good one?
SPEAKER_01Just like newer ideas where there's more consistency of episodes coming out.
SPEAKER_04Cool. Cool.
SPEAKER_01Um, not all interviews. Some will be articles and ideas that I've had for a little bit. But nice. And I'm like, I need to prep in advance for them for them to be twerk.
SPEAKER_04It's awesome that you do this, dude. Thanks, man. It's like I really admire people that can just go do things.
SPEAKER_01I've just been yeah, uh recently I've been just telling myself to just like fuck it. Do do like there are things that I want to do, just start doing them. Yeah. But even if it takes time to do them, like at least start that down that road. Yeah. Because like this started because I was having like silly conversations about career stuff with actors that I love, and that and it's like just something I enjoy doing. And it was a great excuse to like put people out there on a in a nice way and also just like keep up with friends and continue to network in a way that's fun for me. Yeah. Um, I've gotten to meet some new artists this way in a way that I don't think I would have had the courage to maybe have done in any other setting. Cool. Um, I just find I get to know people better this way. I don't know. Yeah, it's because I'm controlling every aspect of it. But thank you so much for being on the show. Of course, man. This is great. I love hanging out with you, man. We gotta do hanging out. Hanging out more. We gotta do it. Uh break a leg with this new project. I'm yeah, I'm so excited for you.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. It'll be cool. It'll be cool.
SPEAKER_01I'm excited. I'm really excited. Dude, it's gonna be great. Yeah, it's gonna be amazing. All right, y'all. That was this week's episode of the Working Class Acts podcast. We'll see you next week.
unknownBye.
