The One With Jacob, Doug and Spencer

she at?

Is she going?

Yeah, she was.

She got here and she's

like, "I don't want to do this."

Welcome to Bud Eye Digress Podcast.

This is Jennifer Dooley speaking.

What are we talking about, guys?

What's on the agenda for today?

Pink is a color.

(Laughing)

It's a hot take right there.

She's coming.

A hot take and a hot dog.

What if I just did an

NPR voice the whole time?

Oh, well, you see.

That's going to bounce a little because I

was planning on doing Alex Jones.

Yeah, we're here to talk about stuff.

We're making the frogs again.

We're here to talk about drama.

Have you ever been here before?

Our podcast is already no

longer safe for young people.

What?

What did I say?

Was that five minutes?

No, you haven't even

set a single curse order.

I've been practicing.

Shoot.

She...

you already started recording.

Great.

That's great.

You probably don't

want to put your name on.

But I mean, we can wander off clearly.

Oh, no.

What?

No. We'll have to start somewhere.

I only do one take.

We're doing.

I will be in my trailer.

Okay.

Okay.

Welcome back to Bud-eye digress

Adventures in Education.

No I told you Spencer

already does this for you.

Fine.

Did he say he was in a pretty big league?

Weren't we recording all over?

Oh my gosh.

That's great.

So I'm skipping the intro

because it already got done.

No you can totally do it.

It's fine but Spencer did it.

You can

Jennifer Dooley the founder and executive

director of Evans County Drama which is a

K through 12 educational theater program

in the wilds of rural Kentucky.

And with me is always Brent Norris the

loudest technical director in Evans

County which makes him

technically a director.

That's probably not true.

Also joining us today are Douglas Hurt,

Jacob Bolton, Spencer Lawler

Hello.

Whose qualifications we

will try to explain later.

Before we get to talking to these

handsome gentlemen I always give the

audience an update on what we're

currently working on.

We're in prompting for the show The Con.

Prompting means in theory that all the

actors have learned all their blocking

and all of their lines.

But if they get stuck on a line or forget

their blocking then the stage manager is

sitting right in front of the stage and

she will prompt them as to what they

should say next or

where they should go next.

Hopefully

a student doesn't know their lines and

the scene keeps having to stop everyone

will get angry at them and they'll be

peer pressured into learning their lines

and their blocking

for the next rehearsal.

That is the great right hope.

And it's actually going

pretty well this time.

There's nobody who's just decided they're

not going to play out reindeer games.

Because you guys aren't here anymore.

Well,

it's me.

So were all of you guys always off book

and ready to go and we were prompting you

always knew all of your

lines and your blocking?

I would say a solid 120 percent.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Especially not deering the play.

No, you would never do that.

You

say you've never forget your line, right?

Say one from like when you were in high

school, like your first play.

I have so many favorites.

I denounced these proceedings.

Were you in the show?

Were you the yellow bird?

No, I'm not.

Hail?

You're Reverend Hale.

That was my first play.

You were.

You were Reverend Hale.

Yeah.

Because the other Reverend guy got.

Did he get arrested or either got

arrested or went to ALC and

we had to bring Matt Long in.

Yes.

Yes.

That was crazy.

No, literally because he was doing

Shakespeare, raised at the same time.

So he came in the theater and I said,

hey, you have to go.

The kid is not doing the show.

And he said, OK.

And he went out and he threw up in the

parking lot and he came

back in and said, let's go.

I didn't find out how much

later that's what happened.

But that totally drives.

Yeah.

I feel like that show has like its own

mythos when we were starting.

mean, we were like

single digits at that point.

Right.

Right.

That was like we had done we had done our

town and we had done

Romeo and Juliet, I think.

And that was it.

So and it was free

because it was in the textbook.

And then we had a lot of parents get

angry because they thought

I was teaching witchcraft.

So the drama shorts that

year say it's not about witches.

No.

No wonder

all those spells.

Yeah.

Right.

So were you guys when it was still drama

club then and it was

and it wasn't a class

that wasn't co-curricular.

No.

Like it was that we had a class.

I think that might have been the first

time it was a class.

There were both.

Yeah.

We had like the club days.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We were on block to

spend a lot more time to rehearse.

And then I remember for my freshman year,

my first drama class, we actually had it

in the band room for like a week.

We did.

Yeah.

We did to have it in

the band room sometimes.

Yeah.

All right.

So I'm not going to let you guys

introduce yourselves

appropriately as possible.

She can't this school appropriate things.

We'll start with you, Douglas.

My name is Douglas Roy hurt.

I was in the drama department

that ECHS from 2006 to 2010.

And I'm very excited to be here.

My name is Jacob Bolton.

I was in the drama

program from 2007 to 2010.

But I was president of the

drama club my senior year.

I was vice president.

I was there.

Spencer Lawler.

I was in the drama

program from 2008 to 2010.

I think I think so.

Just three years.

You didn't do your senior year.

I didn't do my senior year.

Dang.

Yeah.

My friends left.

Clitter.

So the loser.

The point of this operation is that we

try to give people tips on how to start

their own theater programs

or improve their programs.

Or there are several people that have

contacted me directly who were like, I

have to teach theater.

In fact, there's a guy in our district

who was told the day

before school started that

that he was teaching theater.

And he had seen a play once.

So this is to help those people out.

That's part of the operation.

And the other part is basically we just

sit around and talk

with people that are like

our experiences in theater.

And I just want to

see people that I like.

So that's what this episode is today.

But it kind of builds-- the episode's

building on each other.

So a

couple of weeks ago, we had Fallon will

be here was Fallon Hogan

when she was in high school.

And she was talking about

we did Midsummer Night's Dream, her

grandfather died the morning of the show.

That was her.

She was directing that show.

Yeah.

He died the morning of the show.

And she was talking about how powerful

that was because she called and I said,

if you don't want to come, she says, no,

I have to come because if I don't, I

can't, I can't do anything.

I have to go do this thing and not think

about what's happening at home.

I said, okay.

And about the

community that she felt there.

And then we started talking about other

things that had happened.

We've had students die.

We've had parents die.

We've had just terrible things happen to

kids and they want to come and be with

the other theater kids in the space and

about the community.

And several people talked to me about

that episode about how they thought that

was really powerful.

And so I want to talk to you guys about

community because you have, you're still

in community with each other and with,

with Brent and I, of course.

So that's kind of why I

wanted you guys to come in today.

So were you guys friends before you

started doing drama?

So Jacob and I.

Jacob and Shaggy said no, vigorously.

I've never met this guy.

Yeah.

Jacob and I have known each

other pretty much since birth.

And so we've been buds for forever.

He's going to return the call.

Yeah. So we're going to go to school and tell him what we're going to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to return the call.

Yeah.

So we're the other children.

Yeah.

But we, on a serious note, I think we

started hanging out when I was like in

fifth grade because we had a split class.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. I was in fourth.

Yeah.

You and I were in Mr.

Adams split class.

Yeah.

I was in fifth grade and

he was in fourth grade.

And they'd come over in like third grade.

Yeah.

They were swimming at

my grandparents house.

You know, it was the

best memory of my life.

I mean, you remember

the moment of his birth.

Yeah.

I remember you at all.

Spencer kicks in around tenth grade.

I'm

leaving out five dollars.

I think you might be right.

I am right.

I was there.

85% chance you're right.

Because our

grandparents were good friends.

So I think at some point our pads merged.

We merged.

Our pads might have crossed.

I think we started hanging out my

freshman year when I

joined the academic team.

Yeah.

Like that was like

when it really kicked off.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's when we really

became good friends for sure.

I do have a memory of, I think I was in

fifth grade and you were

probably in fourth grade.

I spent the night at your house and we

watched Men in Black in your basement.

Sounds right.

Yeah.

Beautiful stuff.

Yeah, it is.

It's a good movie.

It is.

So Spencer, why did you join drama?

You know, I don't really remember.

I think it's because I like to talk a lot

and the center of attention.

What?

It's what I've been told.

I don't believe it really.

You've been shocking information.

Okay.

How about you, Jacob?

I think I joined because there were a lot

of people that were my

friends that were in it.

I think Douglas was in there and then

there were a handful of other people.

Erica, Ashley, Cassidy was in there.

So

it was

way to like hang out and then it like

turned out to be something that was fun.

So it was like we got to

hang out and have fun together.

So thank goodness.

That's an opportunity.

How about you, Dougie?

Honestly, like, you know, we got those

sheets in eighth grade about like signing

up for high school classes.

Saw drama on there and I've

always been a huge cinephile.

I mean, bad movies, good movies.

I love movies.

So I was like, yeah, check that box.

And then next thing I know

we were in the band room.

Honestly,

though, it was probably one of the most

fun times of my life

being involved in drama.

That's great.

You know, you can come

back and play with us.

We'll do Red Eye 10s in January.

Okay.

So that's where you get the 24 hour show.

I remember that.

Yeah, we're going to try to reboot that.

I think we're going to go back and like

go through the ones we've already done

and pick the ones that does someone had

me in the school

shooting with my daughter.

No, we're not doing

school shooting again.

I historically will give Brent the worst

because it used to be there was a play

rank competition and people

were doing it every time zone.

Right.

And so you got the plays like I would

give them a month before and I would give

them them like a week before I guess

directors and everybody

else got the day of the show.

And these were brand new plays.

And nobody ever done anywhere.

And the deal was somebody's doing them

every hour for 24 hours.

There's somebody every time zone.

We were the central time

zone up until COVID happened.

And so I would look at

these things and be like, what?

I don't even know.

Brent, I was like,

this one's about D and D.

It was not.

It was about a school.

I watched it.

I got shot.

And there was one about

magicians that didn't have a

don't tell them it's bad.

You say, no, this is the best one.

Also, that's a lot too about us getting a

week before I got the

school shooting one the day of.

Surprise.

If I gave it to you

earlier, you wouldn't show up.

From what I hear, you

got the D and D one.

The day of.

I was like, you can buy D and D.

You can put your daughter in it.

It's fine.

I don't think we did Red Eye 10s, right?

But we did.

What what was dinner with the McGuffins?

We did like a one act.

We did like a series of one act.

Yeah.

Sends and clutter.

Was that one of them?

Was that part of that?

Or was that later?

No, we had it was

dinner with the McGuffins.

And there were three other plays.

Governing Alice.

Governing Alice.

Yeah.

That's the one.

You got shot.

Yeah.

That's what made me think of it.

You said school shooting.

And I was like, I got shot

in a series of one act plays

was the third one?

Because there were three.

Because I know I

directed dinner with him.

You ran that one.

Kim,

Cory.

Yeah.

And then like, I think.

Patricia.

Yeah.

Patricia, Kathy Clark.

Yeah.

And then I think Governing Alice, that

was Erica that directed that.

And Matt was in it and

Austin Durham.

That's what it was.

Oh, my God.

I'm sorry.

You should play a principal.

I can't tell the kid.

So he followed Mr.

Alexander for like a

week and did not tell him.

So he was like very concerned and adopted

his mannerisms and

speech parents like that.

And it was really good.

But then what was the other show?

I don't remember.

It's the one none of us were.

I don't know.

I'll begin it later.

We'll talk about it in the podcast.

So what other than those shows, what are

some other shows that you, some memories

you have either on or off

stage or in class from drama?

Well, there's one show

that I want to get to before.

Yeah.

Hard Candy was the

first one that I was in.

And I know that's been talked about on

this podcast before, but yeah, that was,

I think that was a

great first show to be in.

At least for me.

A little tiny one act, two person scenes.

That was the show where

the girl's father died.

Like in real life, one of the actress'

fathers died dress week.

And I said, you don't have to do this.

And she said, no, I'm going to do it.

Is that every play?

And yeah, so that was because I was like,

yeah, so that was a good show.

Who Rachel Finch, I think she might have

directed that where she was in that one.

And is that the one we

bought the chaps for Tinker?

We had the leather chaps for Tinker.

Possibly.

I thought Tinker just always had chaps.

Yeah, that's possible.

So that was

like, no, you have to

wear pants under the.

I

think that was our freshman year.

That we did hard candy.

I don't remember what.

I think it was our sophomore year because

that's when you started.

I thought I started the second.

Well, maybe.

Yeah, maybe I started

the second semester.

A mid summer night stream was.

I really.

Sophomore play.

We did do that one sophomore year.

Yeah, mid summer.

Yeah.

I think we did hard candy.

Three times.

I think we did a hard candy freshman year

because I think like

DJ and Beth were in it.

No, that was.

That was check.

Check please.

Yeah.

Check please.

That's the one I'm not.

That's

the one I'm thinking of is check please.

Yeah, that's very similar to hard candy.

That was my first.

It was like two people, two

people, two people, two people.

Yeah.

That's the one where you got handcuffed.

Oh my gosh.

I said do not use those handcuffs.

And then Madison did anyway.

And I had to leave the room. I said, do not use those handcuffs. And then Madison did anyway.

And I had to leave Philip West with you

guys and go up and get.

So I don't know where my keys are.

They're in the car.

There are handcuff keys on my.

That's right.

That's wonderful.

My school keys ever since that day.

I have handcuffed.

So much so that like there was someone

posted on Facebook that they found a set

of keys on Denham road and like in the

picture you can see that

as a handcuff key on it.

And I was like, hey, yo.

Everything's for keys.

I was just like, who else would have a

handcuff key on their.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because of you.

But because of me.

I

did not put that.

Here is handcuffs.

We're going to put them in a bag.

Don't want to use them.

Don't put them on anybody.

I have to go to the bathroom.

I came back and she

was like, Oh, my Lord.

So yeah,

does she listen to those female?

I don't know, but she definitely should.

All right.

That was a fun time.

Madison, if you ever listen to this.

three Chuck, please.

There's a check.

Please.

One, two, three.

I think you guys are the first one.

Then we did the second

one later with Rachel.

Gray's original bag.

Shaw and that real tall skinny kid whose

mom used to be secretary at south.

Kyle.

Kyle.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was all.

What was the other one?

Yeah.

It was a fairy tale stuff.

We were mega brothers.

Yeah.

That was a blast.

That was a good show.

Yep.

With the birds at the end.

She was the bird.

I forgot about the birds.

I was sorry.

No one else forgot about the birds.

There's great pictures of that out there.

I was going to say she mentions one often

where you're in a dress.

I don't know why, but she's like.

That was not another high school.

Yeah. 30 reasons not to be.

No, no, that was 30 reasons.

That was the one where all the kids had

the colored shirts on.

I think they were out of

school before we did that one.

I think you were in that one.

They weren't maybe.

I don't remember.

I don't know.

No, the one you're talking about is.

Not another high school play.

Not another high school play.

When Tia comes out and says that I've run

off to, it's always tinker, isn't it?

Off to Mexico to fulfill

my true passion of flamenco.

But really he just locked

me in the trunk of his car.

And so all sorts of things happen.

He was wearing the green blazer.

He was wearing the green blazer.

And there's pictures of me.

Which is right there.

There's the green blazer.

Austin Durham in dresses.

Everyone was in a dress.

Yeah.

Yep.

That was a good time.

That was a good show too.

So many good plays. Yep.

Twelve Angry Men.

And Twelve Angry Men.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

That's a maternity dress that I wore.

And the one that you have on is a dress

that Western gave us from.

It was a Tottondi dress

from in Summer Night 3.

It was where that dress came from.

Those are the pictures I show people when

they ask me what I

looked like when I had hair.

They're like, "Oh, you had

hair in some other stuff."

And a dress.

Okay.

All right.

See, that's weird because that's the

picture I show people when they ask me,

"Hey, what's your dress fit like?"

What times are you?

Yeah, what times are you?

You know something like that.

It happens all the time.

Oh, my lord.

That's a good show.

Yeah.

Twelve Angry Men.

Yeah, that was a fun one.

Yeah, I forgot Twelve Angry Men.

And Twelve Angry Women with

a Girl Cough the Entire Show.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And we're still using set-ups.

We're using tables from

that show and this show.

Some of the folding chairs

have gone the way of the wind.

So we're still using that stuff.

So that was good money.

I have to buy three more chairs for the

show so we'll have enough.

Yeah.

Now that was a good show.

That's a good one set kind of show.

Mm-hmm.

So.

I mean, I forgot my line.

it was the most

important line in the show.

It really was.

And Douglas, just for like five minutes,

was like, "Something doesn't make sense."

And I was like, "Dude, dude, dude."

And we just knocked on the table.

And then Douglas would

come by and like, "Iball me.

Something doesn't make sense."

I'm like, "Eh, probably not."

I think that you're talking

about the chaos initially.

And I mean, I think that's kind of built

into the bones of it.

Because if you experience it, then I

mean, you know how to handle it better.

Right.

We move forward.

Yeah.

And that's what we're talking about is

that the majority of the people that have

been through our program, we're talking

hundreds and hundreds of kids at this

point, because it's been

more than 20 years, right?

They're not all going

off and doing theater.

Maybe half a dozen are

getting paid to do theater.

But they did look at these skills

they are better in chaos.

And they can get in front of people.

And they can make split-second decisions.

They can work with

people that are not like them.

And that's the point, right?

Because I don't think everyone's running

off to Broadway or whatever.

So that's kind of the goal is to make you

better versions of yourselves by giving

you opportunities to screw up or be like,

"Oh, look at this thing."

Or if you do screw up,

like, "Oh, but then I fixed it."

No, they didn't.

Did you guys do – you

didn't miss Nelson is missing.

I was the principal.

You were Elvis.

You were dressed as an Elvis.

You were little kid.

I thought you were Elvis.

Yeah.

So I don't know if you

remember that show or not.

But the morning we had little kids come.

This first one we had little kids come.

And our line designer got arrested.

Cool.

Oh, God.

And so I was back in the box.

And there was a light

cue and a sound cue.

And there was a video we showed.

First time we'd ever shown a video.

And there used to be that metal box in

the back of the – in

the light box, right?

And I jumped up to hit the cue for that.

And I slammed my head into it.

And I cut my head open.

And I just kept going.

And my hair was up, you know, so you

couldn't really tell.

So after the show was over, those little

kids – oh, because remember we had to

knock out a street light.

And they thought that was

the grandest thing ever.

Like, how did you do this, whatever.

So we had to talk back with those little

kids while they were

waiting for their bus.

And this kid said, "What went wrong?"

And I could feel the blood

pooling in my hair, right?

And I was like, "What?

I could see at that point still.

It was fine."

But I was like, "What

did you see go wrong?"

And he was like, "Nothing."

And I was like, "Nothing went wrong."

Yeah.

It was perfect.

It was awesome.

But it's like – and

it's not just little kids.

That's the first question

that, like, everybody has.

Especially, like, if

they're not in the theater.

But even if they still, like, go to

theater, you know, if you open it upward.

And for questions, that's the first

question most people have.

Yeah. Did anybody miss a line?

And the answer is no.

Everything was fine.

Everything was supposed to happen.

And we've done several shows where stuff

happened to the audience where you can't

– it's hard to tell whether that's

supposed to happen or – or – do you

know what the McGuffins is like that?

Well, that's kind of like part of the

thing about the play.

Yeah.

Like in the fourth world.

Yeah, like you become self-aware of the

audience and no one else sees them.

And that was – in the day show,

remember, some kids didn't go to the show

that just took off and somebody called

and said they were in town.

And Mr.

Alexander came in and, like, in the

middle of the show and started yelling

about where those kids were.

Oh, I'm kidding.

Do you remember that?

Yeah, I don't remember.

And they played it off.

They played it off like

it was part of the show.

And the kids weren't in there.

Like, he turned the lights on.

I started yelling.

And you were like, "Look! Look!

It's

It's happening now!"

Everybody was like,

"Nothing has happened."

You know what I'm saying?

I'm like, "Yeah."

No!

Oh my God!

So that was back when we

would take all the freshmen.

We don't do that anymore.

We would take all the freshmen.

And these freshmen were stupid and ugly.

And everybody came around the corner and

they just peeled off and went outside and

went down and were walking down the road

and somebody saw them

and called the school.

And so he was like, "We

have to find these kids."

And I was like, "Well,

this is the perfect show."

He didn't tell me that.

He just came and started yelling.

But, yeah, but no, Spencer played it off.

And I was like, "Thank God!"

We did that and I don't remember.

So, yeah.

Good job.

We did a show last year where – We did

a show last year where – We did a show

where – We did a show

last year where – We did

a show where – We did a

show where – We did a show where it was

like a show and then a show and it was

like doubling back on itself.

It was a play about a play.

But then, are you in the play?

Who's in the play?

Who's not in the play?

My victory.

And, no, everyone was listed.

It was like literally in the program.

It was like a person who answers cell

phone in the audience.

Yeah, stuff like that.

But then there were other people that

weren't in the program and then stuff

started happening so the audience

couldn't tell who was

real and who was not.

I saw that show.

Yeah, I thought that worked.

It was really cool.

It did.

Yeah, yeah.

No, you don't.

Did anyone in the audience do something

they weren't supposed to do?

Like a regular audience?

Oh, that's happened before, yeah.

actors were supposed to pass out during

the show and this girl really did.

And Sam Brince was

like, "No, she's down."

She's not getting back up.

And then when the episode was over, she'd

had them previously.

We knew what to do with them.

She was like, "Yeah, I knew I was going

to go down, but I knew it was about time

for me to pass out, so I figured I'd just

wait a second and then go

down when she told me to."

And I was like, "Well, at least it wasn't

during an actual performance, but that

also would have been fine."

But yeah, no stuff happens and we just...

What was the show where the woman got up

and started talking real loud in the

audience and she wouldn't leave?

I had to like physically escort her out.

She was talking about

her brother in prison.

What?

I do not remember that.

It sounds like

something that would happen.

But that's the thing, because it's live

theater, so you don't know.

So that's the great

thing about live theater.

Because Shakespeare in the Park and

Louisville, have you

guys ever been to that?

You have to go.

You have to take the kids.

My kids have been going

since they were little.

And people get up on the stage, don't

people show up, animals come on stage.

The power went out.

They did a whole scene from Twelfth Night

when the power was out.

And it was supposed to

be in the dark though.

And then as soon as this scene was over,

the power came back on.

Like in downtown Louisville.

And they just kept going.

They didn't stop at all.

And that's why it's great.

We've shot a couple of movies.

I don't like that.

Because I think we could do it again.

Right.

Okay.

Until Florence is like, "No!

We have to be bad."

At some point we just have to stop.

And in live theater it's like...

This is it, man.

This is the last shot you have at it.

So it duly turns into like Oliver Stone.

Yeah, except with

somewhat more humorous content.

Okay, yeah.

So what is the show you

really want to talk about, Dougie?

Well, there was another show.

Wasn't there?

Gosh, I don't think so.

Let's go home.

Yeah.

Probably definitely the best

moment of my high school career.

I would say even like the

first half of my life so far.

Yeah.

American history of bridge.

All right.

Just because, I mean,

you know, it was senior

year for me and Jacob.

And it was solid.

You know, obviously it was the same guys

or the same team that

wrote Shakespeare Bridge.

Which was hilarious.

Legacy.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Already.

The initial five times now.

Nice.

But, you know, the biggest part was, you

know, you give him a green light and I

got to go on stage with my two best

buddies and make everybody laugh.

I'm the kind of guy,

I want to get a laugh.

All right.

And we went up there and we smashed it.

These guys, we all did great.

Brenda Stice, awesome stage manager.

Cody Scott, who the prop master, you

know, getting together like it was a

group effort, but, you know, getting

together that giant flag and making the

Bunraku puppet of Abraham Lincoln.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it was just all the multimedia kind

of part of it, the

camaraderie of us up there.

I mean,

yeah.

Yeah.

I'm so mad that that

didn't get on tape, but I'm not.

What?

That American flag.

So it was it basically took up the entire

front half of the object and

everybody to sew it together.

And we're still using it.

We made it to Bunting

finally when we did The Music Man.

But we're still using parts of that.

It's still in the world.

It's not a flag anymore.

It's pieces of things.

No, we still have that piece.

Yeah.

All hands sewn up close at this level.

I think that was one of

the first ones I think I saw.

Because that was obviously

before the musicals and stuff.

Oh, yeah.

And I knew I knew you guys from playing

D&D and stuff like that.

And so when you told me it was happening,

I was like, OK, no,

I'm going to go see this.

And it was like, it was

like, oh, this was wild.

Like, yeah,

wildly inappropriate.

And if anybody who had known anything had

shown up, I'm going to

shove that baby down.

Probably.

But I was like, like before we had prom

and I thought, I'm listening to the

music, they're playing at prom.

This is way worse than

what we're going to do.

We're just going to hope nobody comes

that would be offended and nobody did.

So I remember

that I still don't understand how you let

us the thing about two

weeks before like Kennedy died.

He was in Marilyn Monroe.

The switch up.

I think you had us cut

it off a little earlier.

The pig in a fella in Shakespeare Bridge

where they had the rap about Othello,

which they've now cut from that show.

Very end of it.

They say some things about Desdemona and

just come out with an air horn.

It was like that.

At the end of that play, when we're doing

we're doing like the lightning round in

reverse, like the stuffed

animals.

Yes.

With the pie.

There's a lot of so

much like the Statue of Liberty sinks

back into the ocean.

Yeah.

One of the lines is Monica

Lewinsky goes up on Bill Clinton.

Yeah.

No,

she told us not to.

But the last show we said it anyway.

You built that four out of desks.

Yes.

Just a pile of desks in the middle.

We had to dress up as

the Anderson sisters.

Like the pinot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We tried to spell

America with our bodies.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And did it.

They just took

so long to wear gas everywhere.

We are never doing that show.

The picture of YouTube behind the forts

of the desk is in one of the year wraps.

With the wigs.

Yeah.

I had that big blonde.

And the water gun.

I think that was Vietnam.

Yeah.

We were doing it.

It was like all the wars at one time.

One of us, I think,

was like wearing a bra.

I think all of us.

Yeah.

That gets used a lot.

It's interesting the things that we built

or bought or borrowed 20 years ago that

are still showing up.

Like, oh, I know we have this thing.

Well, that bra ended up

in my magician's thing.

It did.

That I had to make good.

I made chicken salad out of.

Yeah.

We had to pull it out.

Yeah.

It's an instant laugh.

Yeah.

That was a good show for you guys.

I'm glad that you got to do it.

And I'm glad that I

didn't get in trouble.

Do you remember?

I very distinctly remember

when we were halfway through.

And you, Jennifer, were finally like, all

right, let's see it.

And we were like--

(Laughter)

OK.

And we did it.

And I think the whole time you were just

like-- You directed that.

Did you direct that?

Yeah.

(Laughter) So there was a part where I was supposed

to come out on stage.

And Jacob was going to

have a horn in his pocket.

Oh my god.

And the line was like, are

you just happy to see me?

Or is that a horn in your pocket?

And I reach over and squeeze the horn.

And--

(Laughter)

But in the second show,

Jacob forgot the horn.

(Laughter)

Are you happy to see me?

Or is that a horn?

And I just grabbed Jacob's horn.

And he was like, what are you doing?

(Laughter)

Oh, that was also the Civil War part,

where there's

supposed to be the pictures.

And it was like-- and

the audio in the back.

Yeah.

It was me and Mr.

Dooley.

And I said, read this before we do it.

He said, no, no, I don't

have to read it, whatever.

And then the people, the neighbors start

fighting with each other about how

they're breaking up.

Yes.

And

Mr.

Dooley could not.

And I was like, oh, you have to get-- he

was like, I can't do it again.

He's crying.

(Laughter)

I told you to read it.

I remember who read it

with me that morning.

It wasn't him or somebody

else that had kept it cool.

But Mr.

Dooley could not.

I forgot about that.

And all of a sudden, we are

reacting to that on stage.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

And you're like, are we going to do that?

So that was a good show.

Never drink again.

Never.

But we do Shakespeare

Bridge right every five years.

So Ian did it two years ago.

We could do American History Bridge at

the community center.

We could do the Bible Bridge at

the community center.

Is that one they have, though?

That is a real thing.

And you're not touching--

I brought it up and got a hard--

(Laughter)

A thousand notes.

A thousand notes.

I do enjoy this job.

We were keeping our

fingers crossed, though.

Yeah.

We were going for it.

Yeah.

No, that was probably the wildest thing

that we ever have done.

And the culture is different now.

I would not try to put that one up.

Because we got a complaint about

Shakespeare Bridge this

time we'd never gotten before.

And we had Baby Go Blind.

And we almost had a problem with that.

But we sort of stopped

it before it started.

You guys would like that show.

I didn't find it

until after you graduated.

So basically what happens is they send

you a script with 100 plays in it.

It's based on a theater company that used

to work out of New York City.

And you pick-- Is it 30?

It's like 30.

You pick 30 of the shows to do.

They're all one minute.

And what would happen to the original

company is they would

write the shows every week.

And some would stay and some would go.

And you hang up a

clothesline with 30 numbers on it.

And the audience just

screams out a number.

And they didn't do this in New York.

But we did it where we had a ringmaster.

And they would pull down

whatever number they heard.

And then the actors had to do that show.

So all the actors in the audience, every

kid's learned five shows, five scenes.

And so whatever your scene is when it

gets called, you have to

go and do it right then.

There's a 30 minute time limit.

Yeah.

There's a timer.

Whatever 30 minutes of the

show's over at 30 minutes.

But we've never done

it where it didn't make.

We got through the entire show.

My favorite one is

called Chicken, though.

And what happens with that one is

whatever scene just happened, you have to

run back on stage and do it again.

But you can only speak as a chicken.

So OK, though.

So the most recent

version, Julie was the ringmaster.

And so there's no way to gauge what the

audience is yelling.

The ringmaster is just

like, everybody yell a number.

So there's a one that's like the truth

about war or something like that.

And so there's literally written flash or

cards that they have to do the bit on.

It's like a PowerPoint

presentation, but with cards.

So we,

just on the off chance that it got to be

the chicken one, we had redone the cards

with the chicken stuff on it.

And of course, right after it happened,

suddenly the audience yelled

the number for the chicken.

What are the ons?

I know.

And so they had to come back and be like,

well, the first time we

did it was Elise Richmond.

And five people broke up with her.

It was Kip Kipp on stage and dumping her.

And she's very upset.

And all the plays are funny.

Some of them are really sad.

And they just kept going

on stage and dumping her.

And then chicken got pulled.

And she had to go back and get dumped

again five more times.

That's a chicken.

Yeah.

I know.

Chicken crying is very silent.

(Laughter)

So yeah, you guys have enjoyed that show.

It was a good show today.

And we do that one with Shakespeare

Bridge like every five years.

All right, good.

So Jacob, what did you

learn from being in theater?

Well, in high school or college or--

She actually went on to study theater.

Yeah.

I mean, I think the things

that I learned from theater are--

and it almost sounds like

it's, I don't know, trite.

Or I don't know.

But I think the most valuable things that

you take away from theater are being able

to get up in front of

people and talk is a huge one.

Because I think that, increasingly, that

is a skill that is being left behind,

especially for younger people.

But that's always been a thing.

A lot of people don't like to get up in

front of people and talk.

But I've always been able to do that.

But of course, theater helped with that.

And then being a tour guide for the

National Park Service

helped with that too.

That's very much the same kind of skill.

It was, yeah.

And being in theater helped with that,

which was my career tremendously helped

with that, just getting up in front of

people and saying whatever.

Because when you start that job-- not to

derail onto that too much-- but when you

start that job, you very much feel like

you want to stick to a script.

You learn a very narrow set of things.

And then you don't

really want to deviate.

But I feel like when I started, I'd been

doing theater for so long, get up there

and just like, what do

people want to talk about?

And just talk.

So that's, I feel, a very valuable skill.

Another one that I think helped me out a

lot in a different career that I had was,

if somebody asks for a volunteer for

something, I'm like,

yeah, I'll do it, whatever.

I'll volunteer for whatever you got.

It's a super helpful thing too.

Because if you-- what I found out about

that is, if you volunteer for stuff--

and I'm talking in a pretty narrow

context here, because I was in law

enforcement for a while.

And oftentimes, you get asked to

volunteer for stuff in law enforcement.

That is not fun.

It's so like-- Freeing taste.

Well, that or being pepper sprayed, or

getting put in a choke hold, or getting

or it might just be to go shovel the

plant boxes outside.

But anyway, if you're the person that

volunteers for that-- and this is true

outside of work too, but if you'll

volunteer for that stuff, people

recognize that and they talk about that.

If you're helpful, people recognize that

and talk about that.

And those are the best theater kids.

Oh, absolutely.

This is what you take people-- I cannot

sit and hold your hand.

You have to go find those costumes, or

build that prop, or do

whatever you're going to do.

There's too many of them.

Well, not as many as there used to be.

Were you guys there the other year?

We had 70 kids?

Probably.

We had a lot of people.

That was the way to toss a winner one year.

We had 70 kids.

We were there.

And that was just-- I don't even know how

that was a thing that you

could do, but we did it.

Well, and it's different in high school

theater, obviously, because-- so when I

was in college, we had faculty that was a

costume mistress and a prop master.

These were all faculty positions.

And the students were

always under their guidance.

You don't have time to do that.

My thing of care was to do that.

They only let the kids act.

And I'm like, no, you guys

have to go, because I'm tired.

And either I have small children, or I'm

tired because I had small children.

So I don't want to be.

And that's the thing.

This isn't about me.

This is about, look at

what these kids can do.

I just have to be in the

room for legal purposes.

And not every kid wants to act either.

No.

Some people, a lot of

kids have stage fright.

Remember the one girl she would only talk

when she was on stage?

And I just thought,

this is very interesting.

And Enoch didn't

stutter when he was on stage.

That's true.

That's very true.

And so I want you guys

to go and do that stuff.

And if you want to overcome your stage

fright, I want to help you.

Because we do-- and this wasn't so hard

and fast when you

guys were in the program.

But now, if you show up, you have to

appear on stage in the

first show that we do.

If you're a brand new,

you have to appear on stage.

You may not say anything,

but you will be on stage.

Because I don't want to come in.

Well, I only do hair and makeup.

No, you're going to put

your finger in all the pies.

So we did do that.

But then we have some kids

who are like, what did it want?

It's like the girl that stage manages

with us now, Michaela,

she is not interested.

She does not wish to be perceived.

She's probably the second best stage

manager I ever had after Taylor, because

no one's better than Taylor.

But she's really great.

And I think she's going

to do it professionally.

That's what she wants

to go do for school.

So I'm pretty excited.

I'm sorry, I do not mean to.

Well, in fact, at UofL, which is where I

went to college and got a theater degree,

so you have to-- we had to

have four credits from shows.

And every show that you

were in was a half credit.

Oh, yes, yes, yes.

So it's kind of like a lab, basically.

And only one credit, so two

shows, could be acting roles.

Oh, really?

The whole rest of that.

So six shows could not be onstage roles.

So they actually forced

people into off-stage roles,

which I thought was really cool, because

I actually got into lighting and was

like, I really like this, and just did

that instead of doing onstage stuff.

Do they have enough people in that

program so that only

theater majors do theater?

Because it's the way these are UK.

Yes, they did when I was there.

However, there were

often people from other--

So there were some sort

of people that came in.

So yes.

We're going to grow there now.

Sarah Stewart, I think, is going to

graduate from there this year.

Oh, OK.

A theater degree.

Yeah.

Last time I saw that she did was

"Platinum County

Spelling Bee," and she was in.

And they did during COVID, so you

couldn't do any honest participation.

It was kind of sad.

Oh, yeah, that is kind of sad.

But that's what Taylor's doing at Trancy,

that show is next month.

She's backstage managing that one.

Yeah, I can't imagine if COVID had been

during college or something for me.

That would just be so--

Well, we shot videos.

We did a lot of stuff

that we shot online.

But it was definitely weird.

And we did the duallys online.

It was just-- Yeah, that would be weird.

Everybody wore their

promises because they canceled prom.

Right.

so you never know.

Go back to the thing, get live feeder,

you know what's going to happen.

You don't know what's going to be the

last time you get to do it.

You think, oh, we'll do it

again, we'll do it better.

No, this is the time.

No.

Do it the best now.

Oh no, shockers horse rags.

He's in the next show.

Until 16 years later, you do American

History abridged again.

If you want to try to set it up somewhere

that's not a school space,

I will help you with that.

Some of that stuff still exists.

Abraham Lincoln's gone, though.

Because when I moved out of

my classroom, he was in there.

And I told the kids they

could take what they wanted.

So somebody took Abraham Lincoln.

He's living in someone's house now.

He's such an icon.

I like making them happy.

I hope so.

Because then most of all, I'll go to a

kid's house and be like,

that's for my classroom.

That's fine.

What have you learned, Spencer?

Improv, really.

Improv is probably the most

useful skill that I've learned.

Because I meet new people.

I meet new people once a week, that I'm

working in their house.

And something always goes wrong.

Not always, but things happen.

And

have to be able to work fast and fix it

in a timely, efficient manner.

And improv, I really

believe, gave me those skills.

And just

Jacob said, public speaking.

I've been fortunate to be able to speak

to like 200, 250 people.

Just talk to them at a time.

What are you talking about?

Well, I'm actually in recovery.

So I've been to talk to them and get to

talk to them about how

I got to where I'm at

and where I came from.

really helped with that.

And I don't know.

It just-- I'm glad that I did it.

Because I can see all the things that I

learned in school

manifesting in my life now.

And it's just-- it was a good thing.

That's good.

Well, I mean, you said it off the top.

We've mentioned it a couple times.

But it kind of instilled in me the fact

that life is organized chaos.

Since then, I've

become a pretty big planner.

Anytime like trips or anything like that,

I've got to have an

itinerary and all that.

But at the same time, you

can plan all you want to.

You can have your production bottle right

there in front of you open.

But sometimes, asteroid

comes in, blows up your plans.

You've got to roll with it.

You've got to figure out something.

And I mean, I think that's really

something that I keep in the

back of my head quite a bit.

Is that I'm going to try to do this.

But something might happen.

Pivot.

You know.

But yeah, just adaptability, I guess.

Good.

I am glad.

Everybody's got to plan until they get

punched in the mouth.

Until they get punched in the mouth.

Until they get kicked right in the teeth.

It was the Macbeth that we did, but it

was set in high school.

Yes.

The weird sisters.

The weird sisters, yeah.

Oh, that was a good shot.

Yeah, we've totally forgotten about this.

I remember I forget the character's

corresponding names, but I

was the Macbeth character.

And Stephen Bliss was

the king at the time.

Yeah, so you were Mac.

Yeah, I was Mac, yeah.

And there was a

confrontation between us on stage.

Because I guess-- You were fighting us

because you planted pot.

I planted pot, yeah.

But I remember we had worked on it

before, and the couch was behind us.

Yes.

And the thing was, you know, you're

supposed to toss me on the couch.

I'm like, man, you just have at it.

This dude comes up,

slings me on the couch.

I land on the couch.

It scoots like three feet back.

Yeah, no, that was-- Did

the wall go down?

The wall-- I don't think so.

Did the couch flip?

Did the wall go down?

No.

The couch definitely

moved, but I was still upright.

No, that was Tinker.

Tinker knocked the wall down.

That makes sense.

With his head.

Yeah.

Because a girl kissed him.

even break his leg.

Like, I remember him

falling from the top of that-- No.

Yeah.

That was the same show.

Yeah, that was Romeo, you idiot.

He did fall off of that-- Yes.

I just remember him getting hurt.

He's not very-- Ed Somboyne.

C.J.-- no.

Bliss broke C.J.

Farinelli's.

No, that's-- no.

Zach Allison.

Steven broke Zach Allison's like--

(Audio Out) and Juliet.

And we and that was the morning show and

we did three shows and he did all the

shows and then he went

to the emergency room.

Good night.

Yeah.

Because they were fighting because he was

Tybalt and so he has to die, right?

So but they just got super

excited and I heard it crack.

I was backstage and that little tiny girl

with all the hair who named her kid

Aslan, she was supposed to get him off

the stage and I was like,

and Zach Alex is a big old boy.

Yeah.

And she got him off and I was

like, we're going to call it.

And he's like, nope, doing all the shows.

But because Tybalt really isn't, is only

in like three scenes, right?

Sure.

So we iced him up real good because we

were doing the Shakespeare poopy pants.

So we iced him up real good and then kept

it elevated until he had to come back on

and gel three shows and

then he would be like, jeez.

Because I was like, you guys could not,

you could not do this.

They're like, no, we're going to do it.

And I kept like, well, I think I'm going

to be busy on Friday

so I can't do the play.

I'm like, but children's parents have

died and they have broken their body

parts and they're still here.

so people come in clutch all of the time

and you're like, who knew?

And if you tell, if I tell, um, if I tell

you guys, you can do

stuff, then you just do it.

Like we just have to have, I just have

faith and you believe it.

And then it works.

And that's it's so it's magic.

It's so magic.

Isn't it?

Well, I also learned how to type with an

animal from American history.

Yes.

Yes.

I think that's a skill you can use.

I mean, that's marketable.

Yes.

what is something you guys wish you knew

when you first started

drama that you know now,

what would you go back

and tell itty bitty you

that the humble,

that's what lose your ego.

I like this version of you so much.

I'm so proud of you.

You have no idea.

Like when Gavin went to work for you for

a while and he was like, I love Gavin.

I love Gavin.

And

said, if I talked about him in the

podcast, he would rip his own arms off.

But every episode I mentioned him,

uh, part of my current job is I have to

write these analyses and then I have to

like present under to leadership.

And we did one the like Monday,

you do the miss skits.

He needs you guys.

Yeah.

But I

read one out and then one of like the VPs

in the company was like, uh, thank you

Jacob for reading that so well.

Like I'm so impressed at

how well you could read.

And I was like, Oh, thank you.

I said, yeah, I went

to school in Kentucky.

So there were only two of

us in class that could read.

We got a lot of practice and you can tell

like half of them

laughed and like took the joke.

Half of them didn't know

if they were supposed to.

Hey.

All right.

So what else do you wish you had known?

Uh, that nobody's going to know if you

screw up and just, yeah, it's a big one.

I think failure is really important.

And people go, yeah.

And I felt all the time though, well that

didn't work or got that

wrong or let's not do that.

And because I feel like in so many of the

classes that you have to get it right,

especially if you're that kid, this type

kid who wants to be everything, you're

like, Oh, nope, that was terrible.

Let's go back and try to something

different and nothing was

the worst thing that happened.

Nothing.

Yeah.

I'm sure it is for most people, but

failure is something that I still

struggle with a lot.

Like if I'm afraid that I'm going to fail

something, I have a

hard time starting it.

And that's a big problem we have with,

with brand new kids in the program.

Yeah, absolutely.

But I can now like, I

can eventually work myself.

Like I can draw on that experience and

work myself into, well,

like just go ahead and do it.

And like, if you, you know, screw it up,

it's not that big a deal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Tell you, here's the best teacher.

Yeah.

Or one of them.

Other than you.

Beautiful.

You then failure.

Get me out of here.

Oh, come on.

are all good things.

I appreciate it.

So what is going to end

and you should appreciate it.

Yeah.

Take it in.

Every show eventually comes to an end.

how long have you been teaching now?

Um, I started teaching not here, but I

started teaching in 1998 was the first

year I had my own classroom.

been here since 2002.

Okay.

Yeah.

So that's what 23 years.

Yeah.

So is that like a, that's like a fairly

recent thing where now you're starting to

see kids that you've

known since they were born.

No, I have the kids, the kids, right.

That too.

But I was thinking like having kids who

like you've known since

they were born and now they're

well, yeah, because all

of my kids are graduating.

So all of their friends are

like, yeah, so that, yeah.

It's when they come in and say my grandma

was in your show, but when we did the

musical last year, my

grandma was in your show.

we have the first parent meeting.

They all come in here.

And like I said, we had 70 kids straight

up kindergarten, 12th grade, all schools.

And I said, how many of you guys have

chosen me in high school?

Every single child.

And I was like, Oh my God.

So yeah, they were kids that there were

girls that were pregnant that I had, that

were my stand-in-law's class the year

that I had even, we

were all pregnant together.

And so those kids all

graduated last year.

So that's, um, yeah, there was a girl

that graduated with Ian that

her mom had been in our town.

She was the narrator in our town.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Lily McGill's mom.

And she got all the original, she got a

bunch of original cast members to come.

Yeah.

I had that shirt.

Yeah.

So it's nice.

It's nice to have this community.

And also when I go places, the people

know me and are willing to help us out

and donate things because

this is an institution, right?

You know, I do these shows and now I want

my kids to do these shows.

I'm like, yes.

And that wasn't something I

thought about when I started.

I just thought I want to do theater.

I've been trying to find somewhere to do

theater since I was six.

Yeah.

So, and nobody would

let me come play with it.

I was like, good enough.

I never got cast in a show in college.

I have a theater degree, but I thought,

well, let's go start my

own, you know, my own company.

And that's, it's just, I don't know.

I didn't think about that part, but that

part's great that these kids are coveted.

Mackenzie Farinelli's

daughter, never heard.

Yeah.

She's a couple years ahead of her.

Yeah.

She looks at just

like when she showed up at the musical, I

called her Mackenzie for a solid year.

And I was like, no, you are literally

like, so that's Reagan.

It's Reagan.

Yeah.

So it's great.

It's great to have that kind of.

Yeah.

That is one thing that you learn about

theater is like, you know, you have this

idea of like theater people and like,

it's a very specific idea of a person,

but it is something that you see here

where, you know, since I've been back, I

noticed these parents who are not what

you think of as like theater parents,

like their kids are probably theater

kids, but like you wouldn't think of them

as being theater parents, but they're

like building stuff for shows.

And donating money,

food and

doing the lunches.

Yeah.

Or the dinners.

Yeah.

Because that brings in all

this, that soccer does that.

And the first

academic team does that too.

So I can't hold it.

Yeah.

So that's a, that's a huge money maker

for both the programs.

And so it's, it's a good time.

So yeah.

Yeah.

studied theater as your undergrad.

But then you didn't pursue that.

I did not.

Because there's no money in it?

No, not exactly.

I tell most people

that I had fully planned.

I was invested in it until the last

semester I went to college.

it's one of the two master electricians

for the department and the other master

electrician ended up being a

really good friend of mine.

We became good friends through that.

When I first started, we had this super

cool guy who was our lighting designer,

which we took all of

our direction from him.

He was this older guy from Philadelphia.

Super laid back.

Old school still like

hand drew his light plots.

And I took his lighting

design class and we had to do that.

cool guy, great to work for.

And then the semester before my last

semester of college, he

retired and we got another one.

That guy was not cool at all.

He was like a concert lighting designer

and just had a totally

different philosophy.

We were students and we

were being paid by stipend.

It wasn't a job, it was

a program for the school.

And so when we signed up for it, it was

like, "Hey, you can only work 10 hours a

week because you're a student

and we'll pay you this much."

And this guy was doing

such huge elaborate things.

We would go to rehearsals at night and

then we would finish rehearsal and then

we would have so many

notes that we had to change.

We would be there till like

two o'clock in the morning.

Yeah, and we tried to talk to him

multiple times being like, "Hey man, we

can't be doing this.

We can only work 10 hours a week."

And it just never.

And from that point on, it just kind of

like soured me on it, honestly.

Which is unfortunate.

You're not the first person I heard say

that where somebody's had a really

terrible experience with the program.

They're like, "Well, never do that again.

It's all fun.

I hate that because I don't know."

Whoever's in charge, if he's charged with

the whole program or is in charge of a

department, you really set the tone for

it, especially working with students.

And if you make them hate that, then

they're going to, you know,

you lose that kid forever.

And that's just...

At that age, I mean, I was like, "Is this

what professional theater is like?"

Like, this is miserable, you know,

because that's how I

was feeling at the time.

You can come back and adjust our lights

just for the love of the game.

Yeah, a couple times.

We got new ones, man.

I mean, you know, we're talking about

your long list of injuries that have

occurred during theater.

So one of our theater spaces

at UofL was just an old church.

Oh, yeah.

I've seen a show in there.

Yeah.

And we had this old lighting set up and

one of them was just like a bar of

outlets that goes across the top.

I've been shocked by

that thing so many times.

Standing at the top of a

30 foot aluminum ladder.

We wasn't so much

outlets, it's just bare wires.

We had to just like...

No one knew where the switch was, so we

just lined them up a lot.

Keep plugging it so UofL comes on.

Flick it before you drag the light

fixture all the way up there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's like, you know, I think about

that a lot because obviously Louisville

has their theater up there.

Yeah.

If you were to stay in Kentucky,

then Louisville is a good place to be if

you want to do theater.

Very good size.

There's a lot of talent there.

They do very well.

They do the Humana stuff.

Yeah.

So that was always like...

Well, the Humana Festival has been cancelled.

Yeah.

Which is kind of lousy because I've been

on that for a long time.

Way before I ever got here.

But that was a big

thing when I was in college.

In fact, I took a class, a monologue

class, my last semester that was like

somebody from that

theater came and taught it.

That was a really good class.

It was me and a bunch of graduate

students in that class.

But yeah, that was a good class.

But yeah, that's why...

Well, and so I think the reason why I

never did it is because I was working for

the Park Service at the time.

So immediately when I felt any resistance

at all in the theater career, I was like,

"Oh, well, back to the Park Service."

Yeah.

No, I understand that.

So

which one's like another

theater career, basically?

It really is.

Yeah.

No, I think if I were ever to retire,

which clearly I'm not going to do, I'm

just going to die during

a really bad rehearsal.

And they'll just be

like, "Well, she's sad.

She's just laying in the middle of the

bat because she's sad.

And then I'll just be dead."

No one will know for like an hour.

Yeah.

Or a week.

Or a week.

You know, who knows?

She's got to let Dooley do her thing.

She just needs to.

Are you mad enough to tell her to get up?

But you were going to go get tours?

I think I would be good at being a docent

or do tours and things like that.

I think I'd be really good at that.

That'd be a good time.

But yeah.

Long tradition of retired teachers from

here going to get tours of Mammoth Cave.

I did a Shakespeare play in college.

Richard III. I

fell on the stairs.

It was what, two and a half hours?

I fell up a flight of space.

Also, remember it was 25

degrees in that theater.

The director had a blanket around her and

Jacob got killed like 14 times.

Everybody Richard III killed.

It was just Jacob

with a different hat on.

And Jason was like, "I

don't know this show that well.

Is that just Jacob?"

He's even, I think even played

some women that got murdered.

Because Richard thought it was like, "Yo,

I'm going to kill these people."

And then he does because he's

young, he kills more people.

So he should have said,

"I'm going to kill Jacob again.

Come on, I got to go."

That would be a great bit to do that

intentionally though.

Just every time.

He was good.

He was in the production.

But he did the same costume with the

blood stains from all the other ones.

Basically.

And I remembered and he

just died and I texted him.

I was like, "Can you turn on

the heat in this building?"

And he was like, "Yeah, we turned it on

way down yesterday and

forgot to turn it off."

And I was like, "Can you remember now?

I can't feel my hands.

And if you haven't seen the first two,

you don't even know what's happening.

Oh yeah, I mean, yeah.

Is that the one where Thanos shows up?

Yes.

Okay, yeah.

That's not me.

Richard III, Electric Boogaloo.

Yeah.

Or no, no, it's Hyper Richard.

Yeah.

The snap is right for remission.

It's okay.

Yeah, I guess we have

to people come back.

Nice show.

It's the audience.

Wait for the audience to decide.

The full title is

Richard III Infinity Stone.

He tells you as you get the stone.

And then he gets it.

And then Malaw walks

and he goes and gets it.

That's why it takes a lot.

Do you remember the transition scenes

where it was me and another guy and we

were just farmers with like super thick

like Southern accents.

I do.

I can't even remember that.

Is he going to kill him now?

Is he the guy in the show?

I don't know what's happening.

Yeah.

No, I'm very stupid.

It's like the other in that play there's

these like transition scenes where it's

just two farmers and they basically stand

there and they're like, "Oh, I hear the

king's just killing everybody."

Like, is this Richard

III's set in like the South?

No.

No,

we did a very traditional.

We did.

There's a lot of Shakespeare scenes like

that like in Macbeth when they comes out

after they kill Duncan and the guys just

talking waiting with the horses like

everything's gone crazy, horses are

eating each other,

our camp got blown down.

Like they talk about a bunch of damage.

Well, and Julie Cesar happens too.

Like the sky's on fire and tigers are

well up in the streets.

All these terrible things are happening

and they do it because

you can't really show that.

what about you?

What theater have you

done since you left?

I don't think I've done any

since I've been out of school.

Yeah, I don't think so.

It's okay.

So there is one theater

that we all do like every week.

Oh, yeah, that's true.

D&D, but how much do

you actually get done?

Or you just like riffing on stuff and not

actually moving the campaign?

Okay, so listen, the first hour.

Is that not theater?

Is that not the heart and soul of

the theater?

I mean, have you been on the same

campaign for like five

years or something now?

No.

The current one's like

a year and some change.

And I will say Spencer's DMing this one.

He's probably the better DM.

Are you doing the voices?

Sometimes.

Doug did some really good voices.

I heard Doug do some good voices.

Yeah, like they had me DM like the second

one or whatever because I was...

Some of them were

still learning the rules.

So I was helping with that.

But then after that, they've all done

most of it and they're

way better than I am.

The last time we played was genuinely

like one of the funniest...

Like it was a perfect like

theatrical moment that we had.

I don't know if you guys

caught it when it happened.

So there's this...

Basically, the story is we're traveling

around and getting the MacGuffins and

we're going to assemble them and it's

going to beat the big pack guy.

Okay, that's the gist of it.

Well, there's like this super magical

Illuminati that's

like helping us do this.

And they have like a

super special secret base.

So we finally got all the MacGuffins and

we put them together

into the super MacGuffin.

We went back to the secret base and then

somebody sent us on

like a wild goose chase.

And one of our party members was like,

"Well, I'm going to stay here."

And there is a spell in

the game called Similacrum.

When you cast it, it creates a Similacrum

of you, which is

basically like a copy of you.

Yeah.

Okay.

And he was like, "I'm going to make a

Similacrum of myself."

And we're like, "Okay."

It takes 12 hours.

Yeah, it takes 12 hours.

So we're like, "Okay, well,

we'll go do the goose chase.

You stay here and do the Similacrum."

Well, there's this whole plot point where

a very well-known vampire

from like D&D lore shows up.

He's been in disguise this whole time as

one of the Illuminati members.

Right.

That's helping them.

They don't know that and I do.

And I don't need them there.

And Steven is like, "I'm not leaving.

I was not moving for 12 hours."

So because Steven didn't leave,

Spencer had the vampire show up and

basically like stab him.

And really mess him up.

Well, anyway, we were gone this whole

time looking for someone.

And we found them and

they were like, "Oh, yeah.

I've been gone for a while, but so and so

was acting weird when I left."

And we were like, "Okay.

Well, don't worry about it.

We left one of our

friends back at the bus.

He's a super reasonable guy.

He's very trustworthy.

We'll just, you know, we'll cast a

sending spell and

talk to him real quick."

And she was like, "Oh, okay.

Yeah, do that."

We're like...

And Steven goes,

"Vampire killed my baby!"

Genuinely, like, what is

the funniest, like, just...

Where else would you come up with that?

Yeah.

The first hour usually

of D&D is not podcastable.

Yeah.

And then most...

Agree to disagree.

And then most of the rest of it, you

could actually record and do something

like this with or whatever, because it's

usually is super hilarious because

between, like, the stuff that we were

doing at the beginning of this that may

or may not make the podcast, but between,

like, four of us, I mean, we will be off

on a tangent so hard that you literally

can't breathe, like, trying just like...

Yeah.

But here's the thing,

like, if we all, like, just...

Like, went to dinner together and we're,

like, sitting around, like, yeah, we'll

cut up and, like, you know, be funny,

but, like, I don't...

Like, without D&D as,

like, the centerpiece...

It's the lubricant.

I don't think we are as

funny without that, like...

I know you're pretty funny this evening.

Yeah.

I mean...

Exactly D&D, but I

guess it's in the world.

But it's another thing, though.

There's a lot of D&D in the...

We need something to draw from, you know,

or not that we need it, but, like, it

helps a lot to have

something to draw from.

He has a spell, an

attack spell, that he has...

What does he call it?

Shadow of Moyle.

Yeah.

Every time.

Every time he uses it.

Wait, do you know what a Moyle is?

It's the people that...

Yeah, go ahead, Doug.

So it's a specialized rabbi that takes

care of the second sentence.

Oh, yes. Oh, I did know that.

I did know

So it's literally, I'm like, "All right,

guys, make the joke, because

I'm going to cast the spell."

I mean, it's, like, Shadow of Moyle. 15

minutes every time we cast it.

Like, it's just like, "Oh, I thought of

another one last time."

Like, you get, like, a week in between to

be like, "Oh, here we go."

Yeah, like, yeah.

There's another one, too, that we do,

like, every single time.

And I cannot think of what the spell is.

We have so many, really.

It's MST3K.

Oh, yes.

Just imagine that.

Yes, no, I totally...

And the other thing about it is, like,

he'll start spieling off, like, five

minutes of, like, story about what the

hell's happening, right?

And then he'll finish, and then we will

say the most ridiculous thing.

And, like, we will just play, like,

that's the thing we're actually going to

go do, right up until the point where

we're like, "Okay, no,

we're definitely not."

And then, like...

Sometimes, but, yes, sometimes not.

But I was just thinking about that.

It's like, "Oh, yeah, Spencer will, like,

build up this dramatic moment where it's

like, "Oh, yeah, the devil, like,

finishes casting her spell and, like,

locks eyes with you, like, "All right,

what are you going to do?"

And it's like, "Well, howdy."

Just stuff like that.

It's so hard.

I try to be serious

and build it up.

It's all improv, man.

It's not worth it.

But, like, also, Spencer has to play,

like, the straight man

in the whole situation.

Because, like, there is a story, and the

story is very dramatic.

Like, Wizards of the Coast didn't write a

comedy for us, so...

Right, right.

But, like, he has to play the straight

man, and then we're just...

Yeah, we're the devil.

We had him hostage.

Yeah.

I don't think I want to DM for you.

When Doug DMed, I never,

ever play a charisma character.

So I was not used to the power that I got

by having the ability to convince people

to do the things that I took over the

entirety of the

northern part of a continent.

And, like, convincing people to do stuff.

Like, and finally Doug

was just like, "I'm done.

Here's a giant

Tyrannosaurus Rex that's unkillable."

Made me mad.

the best part is that I've gotten to know

you guys and see you guys

grow up and see you now.

And just, I just think it's amazing.

All the community that we have and all

the kids that come to Thanksgiving and

Christmas and the kids

that have lived in our house

And so I've gotten to do these things and

get to know your

family since I've had it.

And I really...

I don't know.

This was just...

The things I wanted to do when I was in

high school and when I thought I wanted

to do a theater program, I did not think

about all the extra benefits I was going

to get as far as this

community, this family goes.

Yeah.

And that just...

I just adore you guys.

I'm so proud of all of you.

You've all done so well.

Thank you.

We're proud of you, too.

Thank you.

Do you have any sponsors yet?

For the podcast?

No.

We don't.

Because I'm doing a terrible job of

promoting stuff, because

that's not what I'm good at.

I'd like to give a

shout out to Squarespace.

It's not sponsored, but we'd appreciate

it if you reach out to us.

It should be.

Casper Mattresses.

Yeah, Casper Mattresses.

Nike, hit us up.

Yeah.

We'll talk to anybody.

Spencer, do you have any tile companies

you want to reference?

Oh yeah.

We could get Slooter.

I could get out to them.

Later, greet.

I mean, there's...

I think there's a lot

of people that do that.

There's some multi-

Because when I listen to my voicemail

greeting or something like

that, I sound like a bale of hay.

Like,

hay...

If a bale of hay could play a banjo,

that's what I sound like.

What I do like voicemail.

Yeah, I get that.

I'll make the voice.

This is Douglas.

I couldn't get to the phone right now.

Please leave a message.

Hey, y'all.

Come on, Bands and Douglas

is possum skin and fat food.

Come

on now, big big bait truck.

I'll have to give it up there.

Whiskey and possum, raccoons.

I'm like, I didn't say that.

It's like three minutes long.

I don't

know anybody's ever placed the banjo.

I don't feel like I have a

real deep southern accent.

I know it's there, but then I talk to

people from up north and

they're like, "Hey, you do it."

Biscuit gravy?

Jacob can attest to it.

Up at the park, people from all over...

You can think you're

speaking the King's English.

And then they're like, "What?"

Yeah.

So I lived in Denver.

My whole friend group would

be like, "Jacob, say oil."

Oh yeah.

And I'd be like, "Oh."

Maybe like, "Jacob."

He said the thing.

Say bowl.

And then they would do this.

They would literally end tears.

Just a monkey.

Yeah.

So I'm just going to say that Douglas's

Possum Skimming Factory

is definitely going as a...

A band name.

No, no, no.

That's a sponsor.

That's a sponsor.

That's an every episode sponsor.

When I start making

money for Skimming Possums,

I'll send some to the podcast.

Oh man.

All right, well I think this is all the

insanity we can fit into

one episode Or maybe two

and a half No, it's fine, we just started

our third file I don't know what that

means It has been an absolute delight

It has!

I'm so glad you guys got to come And I'm

so glad to see you I wish I could see you

more But I'm not sure I could sit through

D&D with you guys You should I mean I've

listened to it I've been there like when

you've done it virtually And I'm just

like I don't know that I could do this on

a regular basis It's too much Yeah, it

can be a lot It is But

that's okay So I shall maybe

I have never ever,

not even once, left D&D with these guys

And felt worse than when

I was Oh, I imagine not

Like, I mean, even like three or four

sessions ago I got knocked unconscious in

the first like five

minutes of the thing Oh no!

And did not get brought back up until

like the last five minutes of it Yeah,

you did for a while I had a

blast

It's a spirit filler that's for sure

Yeah, like I mean it's like truly

It's about community It's about making

art and it's community And that's the

whole game That's all, I don't know